


⧫︎ 𝐈'𝐝 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮⧫︎

by Psychedelic0Kitty



Category: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Future, Angst, Apocalypse, Character Death, Eventual Romance, F/M, Future Fic, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Konohagakure | Hidden Leaf Village, Mangekyou Sharingan, Past, Slow Burn, Time Travel, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto Friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:28:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23438449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Psychedelic0Kitty/pseuds/Psychedelic0Kitty
Summary: 🆃🅷🅴 🅴🆁🅰 🅾🅵 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🅷🅸🅽🅾🅱🅸 🅸🆂 🅾🆅🅴🆁𝙉𝙖𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙤 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙎𝙖𝙨𝙪𝙠𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙙.𝙄𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙖𝙗𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚, 𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙥𝙨𝙚𝙨, 𝙬𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙖 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙤𝙨 𝙛𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙥.🅵🅾🆁 🅰🅻🅻 🅱🆄🆃 🅾🅽🅴.𝙁𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙪𝙢𝙖, 𝙖 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙥𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙧𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝙎𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙖’𝙨 𝙚𝙮𝙚𝙨; 𝙖 𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙠𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙖𝙣 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙗𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚.𝙇𝙖𝙪𝙣𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚, 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙖𝙨𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙧𝙚𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙧 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙨𝙚.𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙨, 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙐𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙝𝙖. 𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬.❀ ❀ The time travel story I’ve always wanted, with the new team 7 and Kawaki forced to face their parents’ past head on. ❀ ❀
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sarada, Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sarada & Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke, Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto, Kawaki/Uchiha Sarada, Mitsuki/Uchiha Sarada, Uchiha Sarada & Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Sarada/Uzumaki Boruto, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 40
Kudos: 142





	1. Era of Warring States

**Author's Note:**

> Edit: I updated the summary :3
> 
> An ambitious project from me! In a way, a rant about my expectations for what Boruto or the Naruto spin off could have been. Although Sarada is the main character of this, I will aim to flesh out every other character as if this is my own shounen manga. I've read a few time travel fics of this, none that satisfy me.  
> Hopefully this will be more in depth and will feature more specific interactions and reactions to the past that I crave. For example, Sarada meeting Itachi. Mitsuki and Sarada seeing what Orochimaru did to Sasuke and the third. Boruto meeting his grandparents and Kawaki seeing Boruto and himself in the early interactions of Sasuke and Naruto. 
> 
> Kawaki's development towards good or evil with be considered.  
> BTW: I headcannon that all three will at some point, have romantic feelings for Sarada. At some point, ,, things do get a little SasuSaku centred👀  
>  We'll see how that goes~  
> Hope you enjoy!

There was a lot Sarada didn't know about her dad.   
  
She plunged into water ocean blue and deep. So impossibly deep almost all colour vanished as she reached her hand up towards the fading shore light, trying to swim, expecting water to fill her lungs and choke her.   
  
It didn't. It bubbled and puffed with her breaths, he lungs not tight but relaxed and soothed. Her falling becoming a downward sway.   
A figure of him appeared just beyond her outretched hand, and everything she knew about him. His dark hair and cloak she'd grown endeared to, the mystery that opened up to this man with one arm and mismatched eyes.   
The man she called papa, who she knew. She knew his smell, the hum of his voice, the warmth of him holding her to his chest when she was a small girl. Gradually she'd accepted him as hers; her father.   
  
Not one from birth, not one she had early memories of, like Naruto. But hers. A cry of his name rippled from the water behind her and although it was Lord Seventh's voice her throat burned as if it had been her scream.   
  
It played again - the image of her father's life fading from his eyes with a brutal scream. Her own tried to reach him and the tears stung so awfully it felt like crying blood. It was too late - he was dead but she wouldn't accept that!   
  
She couldn't, she'd do anything. 

Another cry of Sasuke, Sakura's this time and a blur of pink hair raced by Sarada, swaying in the depths of the water with so much strength she cut against the current like air, reaching out in a similar pose to her daughter but getting further.   
Closer to a man Sarada barely recognised. A younger man. On second glance, her mother was younger too, thinner with short hair and desperation.   
The same unconditional love in her emerald eyes before the girl popped.   
  
She popped and vanished like a projection of light, Sarada sat in the water alone, fingers treading through were the younger version of her mother used to be. By now, she was aware that this was strange. It's dream like quality replaced with alarming consciousness and inability to escape.   
With it came panic, as she tried and failed to escape.   
  
The only thing consisten in this, the spot of light on the water above. The racing Sasuke's. The young man screaming with lightning rippling through the air, a god incarnate. A purple beast with a head of a skull and eyes burning, cries loud, the water flipping away like the flick of a shark's tail as another image replaced it.   
Who was this man? Who were these Sasuke Uchihas?  
  
With aching isolation and the resurfacing of a cold feeling she hadn't felt in a long time, Sarada stopped struggling and watched.   
The boy, because he could hardly be called her papa anymore when he was such a stranger continued to morph. Upside down glaring with eyes like endless fire and whispers of shocked voices. Eyes bleeding with a hand gripping them and a sinister laugh. Her blood ran cold but before she could fear it was gone. Sasuke was younger, crying out at a sunset. Younger, blinking shocked before a stone wall of a sort with an Uchiha crest, rain pattering down, blood on his forehead smeared down.   
  
Everytime she tried to analyse more and more he was replaced, everytime he changed he became less of the man she knew.   
How could she know so little?   
It was the worst feeling in the world, not knowing her dear father. Trying to love him all she could and connect with his soul but being unable.   
Sarada felt a tear slide from her cheek in horror. She was so lonely. She missed the world she knew, her father's confidence, her mother's hugs. She didn't know him. She yearned to, but didn't know him at all.   
  
Sasuke grew older again and his rinnegan widened to look at her. Right at her. An expression she'd never forget for as long as she lived.   
And he died all over again.   
A sharp high pitched screech of metal resounded from inside her head, drowning everything out abysmal black.   
Her red eyes bulged, their pattern giving a powerful twirl before twisting backwards like the hand of a clock. 

* * *

Sarada burst awake with a painful choke. She sat up, hand over her head, eyes clenched shut and palms digging into them to try and scratch and dull the brutal pain. Calming down was impossible, hitches of her breath almost violent as she slowly became aware of the voices around her.   
"It's okay-"  
  
It comforted through her panics, soft and slow as if the whole world had fallen to a cotton bed.   
"You're safe, you're here with me. I won't let anything happen to you." A soft chuckle. So warm and filled with love, Sarada actually found the strength in her to stop. Her ears strained and discovered the voice came from the side.   
  
"Your big brother is always here to protect you," She heard a kiss, a lower of a voice and her eyes finally opened. "No matter what."   
To her surprise, she was alone.   
  
It was a hot day, her body upright on dry, light bround land. When he fingers clenched at her sides, they found grass. Sarada winced, testing her eyes in the direction of the sweet voice. She was outside, sat between a site of three or four tent camps. Tall, sturdy and rustic, held up with pegs of wood and wires, unlike the portable ones she'd seen before.   
Fairly far to her right, one of these peaked up and Sarada saw three boys. Her heart stopped, her first thought concern that she was intruding. A pale toddler rested his cheek on the shoulder of a larger boy. One with similar light skin to her own, dark eyes and hair so black and graceful her breath hitched in.   
  
"Papa..?"  
  
His eyes jerked towards hers. No. She realised, but couldn't look away. That wasn't her papa. The boy looked to be around seven, dressed in navy robes and hunched over a tiny wooden cradle. Within it, under many blankets and facing away, the adorable figure of a sleeping baby lay.   
Sarada could have sworn something about this man screamed papa. She couldn't put it into words, but just as she knew it wasn't, she felt something in her heart throb as if he was. Perhaps, it was the pain of loneliness. In her thoughts, the boy had drawn closer, his small frame stood comfort, head just a fraction above her's as she sat upright.   
"What are you doing here?" He asked, a change of voice completely. It wasn't papa's. It had... too much authority. Agression, for such a young child. He stood between her gaze and the open flaps of his tent. Where the two of his brother's watched them with black eyes like hawks.   
  
"I..."   
"Are you hurt?" He changed his approach with a tilt of a head. "You seem out of it. Why are your clothes so strange? Does my father know you're here?"  
He studied her up and down, words too fast for her confusion. The sun too high, the brothers too eerily the same. Their clothing and wooden camps with beige fabrics too... old.   
"Where am I?" She mouthed, surprised to hear her voice wasn't so parched.   
  
Head straightening, he answered. "You're standing outside the home of Tajima Uchiha, home at the moment but I can pass on a message if you wish."   
Sarada's eyes went wide, searching the boy's for some kind of joke. Where was she? When was she?   
"What? But-" She had so many thoughts she couldn't let them out. "Where's the leaf?" She gulped. "I need to talk with the Hokage."   
He eyed her and his face went sour.   
  
"The leaf? What leaf?" He reached down and picked up a stray green leaf, holding it to her and placing it in her hand. "This one?" 

This was scary. Everything she knew was entirely gone - wrong. There were no Uchiha. She'd never heard of one with that name - of so many but now that she looked at these boys, that was clearly what they were. From their loose, traditional clothes held up with tied rope, she feared that they were older than she could ever hope to imagine.   
"What are these things you're wearing on your face?"   
  
The boy said, taking off her glasses and holding them, staring at them.   
"Give them back... they're precious to me." She snapped only to serve nervously, taking them from her grip. Precious? Why were they precious? Who gave them to her again...? Where was she again.   
"Oh."   
  
The boy was starting to spin. His eyes, still staring into her own like too black holes. She felt his hands slide up her face, small and soft and purer than the world he lived in.   
"I see what's going on. You've unlocked your sharingan, that's what's got you so confused."   
His fingers wiped her tears away, her looking up at him with spinning, scarlet orbs as he held her face in his grip. That was the last thing she remembered, before Sarada rolled awake and felt sick.   
  


* * *

Her eyes twisted and she heard that sound. The sky above her was dark, a modern tight devoid of light above her as she heaved and coughed. A medic rushed to her, holding back her hair and helping her through it with drugs, water.   
Reality came back to her like a stab in the chest.   
  
The leaf was gone. Crushed to rubble with chipped, fallen stone faces. The homes, shattered, bodies trapped helpless underground undiscovered and morale at an all time low.   
Naruto and Sasuke were dead.   
The thought made her eyes blank, her skin prickle with bumps and a fear and sickness of a kind she'd never felt before. She'd never known this insecurity in her life, accustomed to always having them to rely on. To always being safe.   
  
Sarada didn't want to think about it. She threw her legs aside and stood, out the tent. Tall, almost sixteen years old with her dark, dirty hair from a day of fighting flowing down her back. Seeing it, it looked even worse. They had camps in the old caves dug away in mount Kage for safety. Ten, maybe twenty thousand flustered individuals rested here, in dirt-poor tents and scraps they'd barely salvaged or imported.   
  
In an eerily poetic way, the sight was similar to her vision.   
It wasn't just leaf inhabitants though. Refugees from all across the land of fire and beyond had come here. They'd been welcomed. They'd thought they would be safe, in the home of the strongest man on earth.   
  
The strongest men.   
Sarada's eyes trembled again, staring emptily at the ground. She couldn't do this.   
Mom. She needed mom. 

* * *

Her mama had been with her through thick and thin, blood and water. For almost every day since she was a child, mama was the first she'd see when she woke and the last she'd say goodnight to before she slept.   
If anyone could comfort her, it was mama. When Sarada found her, hunched over an injured person in one of the tents, her heart split open with repose and she called for her, opening her arms and running.   
  
It didn't go as planned.   
  
There was no comfort, even as mama gasped her name in relief and hugged her tight. Sarada had expected her mama to bring the sun back to the dark world, inside the cave. The kids were still crying through. In a second or less mama was too.   
She'd never heard her cry so hard. Never seen it and it was horrific. The fingers grasping at her made her fear she was about to die to. She probably was. Things weren't safe. They'd never be the same again. It increased her burden even more.   
  
Sarada became acutely worried that they were upsetting a poor patient, but when she glanced over she saw Granny Tsunade in a broken heap of grey skin. The diamond on her head was gone, her eyes dried up like dead leaves.   
Sarada's mouth hung. She had no time to ask as Mama held her head and locked eyes with her, telling her words that wouldn't quite sink in.   
Why couldn't Sarada focus?   
  
Her mama was barely recognisable. Her skin had been tainted with grey wrinkles of worry, a line between her forehead, a downward curve to her lightless eyes.   
No, they weren't lightless but they were broken. Sarada was reminded of her vision, of her mother's unconditional love for Sasuke Uchiha. Her love was so strong, it would last beyond the end of the world.   
  
She was crying before she knew it. In one day, her mama had aged to a quiet, slower, sadder woman. One who tried to pick herself up but, Sarada knew she would never smile again.   
Never be truly happy again.   
  
Dark eyes watered as they stared at the floor. 

* * *

Mama insisted on working longer but fainted in Sarada's arms. She remained shaking, two of the strongest women in ninja history at her side in broken heaps and didn't know what to do. She felt this was the end of humanity.   
  
After a deep breath, she tucked her mother in, resuming her work, saving the woman that could in turn, help save thousands. Sarada was a more than accomplished medical nin. Her hands worked quick, her mind grateful for the distraction as the old, crumpled Tsunade constantly stared.   
"How long was mama working?"   
  
She dared whisper into the cold, dreadful silence.   
"On me or us all?" Tsunade could speak. That was a good sign, though her voice made Sarad pour more soothing liquid down the old woman's throat.   
"Both." She said, a sad laugh quietly escaping, trying to save herself from the dark mood.   
  
"13 hours on me. Over 50 hours on us all."   
Black eyes went wide.   
"How long was I out?"   
Tsunade looked away. "Three days the least."   
Sarada started to clench her fists with guilt. All that time her poor mama and all the other's needed her and she was just lying there. People could have died, while she was wasting time mourning over the past.   
  
"If you're beating yourself up, don't. Your rest has paid off."   
Something about the tender tone of the old woman's voice made Sarada look up, locking their eyes together. Ever so slightly, her white, wrinkled lips lifted.   
"You've unlocked the eyes of an Uchiha. I can tell."   
  
Those words made her ears prickle, as if she'd felt the dead gather up and whisper proudly in her ears. Sarada shovered and repeated the words, in a whisper.   
"Eyes of an Uchiha? What do you.. mean?"   
  
She'd had sharingan since she was an early teen. She'd not looked in the mirror yet - if one even existed still - but remembered vividly how her dad's eyes morphed and danced hypnotically like shadows telling a story.   
  
The other one, the rinnegan. Sarada touched her own cheek.   
"I fought an Uchiha with eyes like that, a long time ago. A man said to be one of the strongest the clan had ever seen - a legend and God. Until your father came along that is." Tsunade continued on, her croak voice braving a huffing giggle.   
  
Sarada didn't know what to say. She didn't want to talk about... about dad.   
"I ended up in a state similar to this. Worse actually." Tsunade huffed, twisting and turning her hips. "My entire bottom half was separated. I was going to die."   
Sarada swallowed.   
  
"Who would do such a horrible thing? I- I thought the Uchiha clan were allies of the leaf?" She finally managed to say, fingers still emitting a curing, green glow. The fifth's eyes closed.   
"Oh Sarada, there are so many things you don't know. History is filled with cruelty."   
Her bottom lipped worried, but here eys became even more firm.   
  
"I saw a vision." She blurted before she could stop herself. "When... When I was passed out. It could have been a dream but it felt too real. I was chasing..."   
Papa. She was chasing papa, Tsunade didn't make her say it.   
"The next moment I found myself in this... this land with old tents and three Uchiha boys." Suddenly she had a lot to say but not the ability to say it. She didn't want to sound crazy.  
"He, the oldest came to me and told me this was because of my sharingan... It felt so wild I ended up waking up-"  
  
"The era of warring states."   
  
"What?"  
  
"It sound like the the era of warring." Tsunade lifted slightly, covering her mouth to cough. "It was the time my grandfather - the first was born. Before the creation of villages, when clan's would stick together and accept missions for pay."  
  
"He did look confused when I asked about the Hokage and leaf."   
  
"Tell me more. Did you see anyone specific? Anyone you recongnised from textbooks? Hear any names?"   
Sarada shook her heard, worried that she'd been wrong to hype Tsunade up when she should be resting. In her worries, she remembered.   
  
"He said a name! Tajime- Taijim Uchiha? Something like that."  
"Tajime Uchiha." Tsunade's grip clenched on the blankets and then she laughed. "My grandfather's brother would ran and rave about that man, the head of the clan. The boys you met must have been his sons."   
  
Their three, innocent staring faces flashed clearly in her mind.   
"Your ancestors, Sarada." Tsuande smiled, "And the man who grew to start the greatest Shinobi war and-" She was coughing rapidly but grinning, "Chop me in half, the bastard."   
"I... I don't get it. What's so funny?"  
  
"Sarada, you've done it. You've proven you're more amazing than any Uchiha has ever been before. Than anyone!"  
Before she could stop her, Tsunade grabbed her and kissed the corner of her temple.   
  
"B-but granny I..."Maybe it was the stress effecting her brain, but she didn't know what Tsunade meant.   
The excitement in the hazel eyes she'd thought were dead burned on. "You said you asked him about the leaf right? I don't think that was a vision Sarada. I think your mangekyo travels through dimensions like your father's. But you're stronger, the next generation. Your's takes you back in time."   
  
The hair on the back of her neck stood on edge. Her father's dying eyes, her dear Hokage's screams. With a face as white as a ghost, Sarada's hands clenched to a tight fist.   
  
"I can go back- I can stop them before they died."


	2. Anonymous Uchiha

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarada tries to convince her teammates to join her. There is a lot of tension though and it won't be easy for her to get them all on her side. She can barely stop Kawaki and Boruto from tearing each other apart.

It was easier said then done.  
  
Hours flew by, lives were saved. Others lost to injury, starvation, medicinal failures or neglect. It was two days of hard work later that a relief team arrived.   
Suddenly it felt the weight above them had been lifted - just a little. 

She'd almost been afraid it was only them. That all other humans in the world had died. The team came from the sand, a small group of no more than ten but they helped. They were skilled medics.  
She'd forgotten what it was like to not be in charge. She finally caught a break. They had enough workers at last. The first thing she did was pass out. The next day, she woke up at sunset. With no direction, she headed the the very mouth of the dingy cave hideout they'd buried themselves in. 

The Sand was in poor condition but the leaf was far, far worse. She'd heard the Mist had gone into isolation, not accepting migrants ships for fear of infiltration. The Stone had been working closely with the Sand, accepting refugees from the lands of Wind and Fire . The hidden Cloud was the safest ninja village right now. They didn't know how long that would last, but she'd heard her mother talk of a project to deport all children under 13 there to secure the next generation.   
  
It was too much stress. Too much insecurity at once. Sarada headed out the cave, passing the ninja at the barrier who allowed her with a nod. They really shouldn't leave in case they were spotted but, she needed sunlight. Sunlight would cure the depression that had fallen on her since this started. To her disappointment, there was only a few scrapes of it left. Brutal line of orange and red, streaked across the darkening sky like lasers. It wasn't as bright or soothing as she'd hoped. In fact, it was almost night.   
  
She'd gone around the back of the mountain, where cliffs turned to grassy dips, bends, shards and alcoves. A flat plane with a few flowers hid in a tiny slit in the mountain, bent just far away enough that the Uchiha - the very last Uchiha - could be alone.   
She collapsed into it the second she was there, sinking her back against the wall and breathing a sigh.   
  
Stars blinked down at her from directly above. The light of relief she'd so yearned to see, had just escaped her. Now her view of the destroyed leaf was minimal. The red lights outlining it turned purple, blue then black. She felt surrounded by darkness on all ends, and if it weren't for that awful dream she'd had, she would have described it as an abyss.   
  
If she wasn't so exhausted, she would have considered how dangerous this place was. Enemies could come from all directions in the darkness but no, she'd like to imagine she was save. To have faith in her own ability to defend and if not, flee. She laid her head back on the mountain, relaxing. Despite this being her break, all she could do was worry that this was the last of their people.   
The people papa and the seventh had died to protect.   
  
In one mountain. One rock, hiding without any hope of fighting back. She looked up at the ninja by the border, made only visible with her sharingan.  
To think they could fight of danger if it did arrive was laughable. In reality, they were only there to fetch the ninja stronger than them.   
And then what, even their strongest ninja were still too weak?   
  
Still, too powerless. 

It had never been like that. They'd always been the confident top of the food chain. The proud leaf. Their hokage had saved the world, was the strongest on the planet. Until suddenly, he wasn't.   
Her fist slapped mutely against the moutain wall. The power to save them was right in her eyes but she wasn't sure how to use it. She was afraid of it.   
Emotion overflowed from her eyes the second she let her guard down. It would have been fine if this hurt didn't convert rapidly to racing, gushing power. She wondered if the power could break the world instead of healing it. 

She knew she had to be careful not to wrongly use her power.   
  
Just when she was feeling alone she sensed movement from well out of the range of her head. It was silent and their chakra was hidden but the sharingan flashed oddly like a white flame in their direction. The girl tilted her head and stood up, eyes narrowing at the flash of light.   
  
"Who's there?"   
  
Her fingers dug into her kunai, sharingan glaring, she was ready to fight. But she sounded so scared.   
Then all at once her fear tripled.   
  
Kawaki came towards her, head down the way a guilty cat would. He was dragging his feet, clearly injured but that didn't stop her eyes from going wide, backing up.   
"Stop!" She cried out, meaning to sound authoritative but instead, she sounded so afraid. This was the man who...   
His eyes looked up at her and he froze, holding his hands out either side of him.   
"Sarada..." He started, he didn't have to continue. The pleading was in his eyes. But he could be pretending.  
  
"Stay where you are."

He obeyed. Her sharingan whirred, examining the loose, damaged state of his chakra and this time, when she opened her lips, it was an order.   
"Which one are you?"  
  
"Kawaki. The vessel." He almost stuttered in that grumpy, guilty tone of his.   
  
"How do I know that?"   
  
He looked up at her again. It occurred to her that she was being rude for no reason, that he was suffering as much as her, if not more. She knew how much Naruto meant to him. That he had suffered in a way people like them, who grew up securely could never understand. Now she understood it, just a little bit. She imagined Kawaki was more alone than her. The last thing he'd want was to be feared by the only people who'd ever shown him kindness.   
  
"Tell me something only you would know." She said, still on guard but her voice had softened.   
They both knew what that meant. She was trusting him, giving him a chance and swallowing her rage. She saw the relief and gratefulness in his eyes for a split second. A sudden gust of wind and movement muffled the sound, but her sharingan had already locked on to the male's lips. She read the movement, knowing exactly what he'd said. She confirmed with a breath of relief, that it was something only the two of them could know.   
  
Then suddenly, Boruto and Mitsuki were in front of her, the wind almost sending her back. Karma stretched over Boruto's skin, papa's cloak taking away her breath and rendering her speechless. Kawaki's spread over his skin in response and he grit his teeth, suppressing a scream from the lack of energy his body had. They were hurting him. Mitsuki's serpent form ferocious, his tone making her shiver. 

"Get back."   
  
They were trying to protect her.   
"Guys stop it!" She was too late, snakes clenched around Kawaki's skin, bending his body unnaturally. A rasengan three times the size of a human head broke the darkness with vivid azure light. It whirred, sharp and painful on her ears as snake snapped aprt their jaws, venom dripping from teeth that were about to bite. The male stood slack, not fighting back but a frustrated desperation gleamed in his opal eyes.   
  
"I'm gonna end it all right here- end the leaf's suffering by killing this bastard!"  
Boruto had always been harsher to Kawaki than others. But he was still talking, saying it out loud before he struck as if waiting for confirmation. Kawaki deserved it, he closed his eyes and leaned into it, awaiting the pain of his brutal, deserved end.   
  
It never came.  
It didn't even sink in, because Kawaki had died once before. He knew the burning, bitterness of death.   
  
"I said stop."   
  
Reluctantly, he opened his eyes. Sarada Uchiha stood between him and Boruto. Her body, dangerously close to theirs. The hand she had on Mitsuki held him firm, his wrist bent enough that he stopped without being hurt. On the other hand, the way her fingers stung into Boruto's looked genuinely painful. She held his hand up, the heavy whirring, spinning rasengan in her grip. It was lifted away from Kawaki's head.   
At that angle it could still blast them all. Permanently damage them all, but not kill Kawaki. Sarada herself would take the worst of the damage.   
Kawaki and Mitsuki both held their breaths and tongues, uncomfortable with that conclusion. It was still spinning, still growing in size and would eventually grow beyond what she could control.   
  
Blue eyes were locked on gleaming red. A three tomoe sharingan filled with fire and confidence from years of ordering their team to stop and go. Boruto looked down at Sarada, through the flashes of glowing blue and white wind that swivelled over her face. 

  
She was serious.   
He backed down.   
  
The rasengan deflated, so did the rage in his eyes and darkness fell over the four again.   
  
"Why?" He whispered, sounding so hurt, it was a reminder of how much he had changed over the years. The older Boruto would kick and cry and scream when hurt. This one tended to be colder, tended to plot out his attacks more calmly.   
"You of all people should know that he... he killed our-"  
  
"You're forgetting that Kawaki cared for them too. Regrets it too. Why make an enemy of him when he can be a strong ally?"  
Mitsuki's look of surprise turned to a frown, standing beside Boruto who finally looked Kawaki in the eye and hissed. Karma was retreating back to their palms in sync.   
"He lost that right when he left our village."   
  
"I didn't have a choice. I had to to control Jigen and stop him from attacking the villages. The five years of peace you had, you owe it to me."   
They were getting fired up again, bumping chests and locking eyes, making Sarada feel short and ignored all over again.   
"And that excuses the hell you've ripped into our lives now?"   
"Hey! This isn't getting us anywhere-"  
"Take him to the hideout. Show him all the damage he's done! I can't spend a single day without hearing children cry over their lost parents! Mothers crying because their babies are dead. Because of you! We don't know if they'll ever see happiness again-"  
  
"Boruto." Sarada's voice was so far from aggressive, he finally listened. She felt tears prickle her eyes at the tone of his voice, the moment he looked at her, tears slid down his cheeks too. His bright eyes became dim.   
He faltered, breaking away and turning off to the darkness, wiping his eyes were none of them would see. Her heart was still broken. Hearing Boruto put it into words like that sent her back to the moment it happened, reminded her that she'd never be whole again.   
The air between them with stiff with not hatred now, but a terrible sorrow. It was Mitsuki, who spoke in a cool, almost unsympathetic rational tone that brought the three of them back to reality.   
  
"It's not wise to take Kawaki to the shelter. Isshiki could return at any moment."   
Those words were sobering. Sarada swallowed to stop herself from glancing in the direction of the hideout, giving it away. "How did you find me?" She asked.  
Boruto shook his head, "We sensed your chakra flare as if you were in danger."   
That much was obvious. She hadn't been talking to him. It was Kawaki she was curious about, Kawaki who stayed silent and glaring, as if battling with a heavy tongue.   
  
"I... felt like I needed something... in this direction."   
A spark of anxiety flared in the three members of team 7. They kept it silent. They didn't need Kawaki to know how close he was, just in case they informed Jigen by default.   
"Can you sense when he's awakening?" She asked next.   
Kawaki gave a nod.   
  
"He's only absent because my chakra is low. I won't ask you to heal the body that will become your enemies."   
It was no doubt he'd taken damage from the fight. A ripped tendon in his leg likely, an almost entirely broken arm healing as they spoke. He's regenerative abilities weren't to be laughed at. They spelled out in front of Sarada's eyes like an emptying sand timer. She'd give it three hours at most.   
  
Before Isshiki came back.   
  
"We should get somewhere safer-"  
"I don't know why we don't just kill him where he stands."  
Even Mitsuki looked torn by this. He'd usually follow Boruto into the worst of hells. He would, no doubt kill Kawaki if Boruto asked. The thing was, despite his words, Boruto was obviously teetering himself. They were her teammates, yet Sarada feared they weren't on her side. Even Kawaki wasn't truly. She was smack in the middle of three potential enemies.   
  
"If you kill me Isshiki will only materialise in another vessel in a few years-"  
"So we'd be given time to prepare?" Boruto spat.   
"We could use Kawaki as a double agent." Mitsuki proposed.   
  
Kawaki tried to take no offense. He knew Boruto still had a shred of doubt, stopping him from killing Kawaki.   
That could become a horrible weakness, one he wasn't sure if he wanted Boruto to get over.   
  
Maybe they were right.   
  
"We are not killing Kawaki and that is final." Sarada hissed and grabbed Boruto by his collar, since he'd gotten so tall.   
"If people wanted to kill your father for possessing the nine tails would you support them?"   
That made him stammer in disgust and for a second, she thought he would slap her but then he just looked hurt. Ashamed.  
  
"Don't..." He trailed off. She felt bad for bringing him up but it hurt her just as badly. Bringing him up was inappropriate. 

  
"Come on."   
  
When she hopped off the ledge they followed, as her team, it was habit to do so. Kawaki stumbled and Mitsuki actually helped him regain his footing. She was relieved, taking them into the darkness of the trees, opposite the the mountain of broken Kage faces. Far, far away from where father and Naruto had fought and-  
Disappeared.   
There would be no bodies. No hope of survival.   
  
Her jaw was tight and her throat sore as she whipped through the night air, stopping at the very edge of a broken village of rubble, far enough from the hideout to be safe, sheltered in the mouth of the forest that had once hid and protected her home.   
"What are we doing exactly?" Boruto asked, likely hiding the same train of thought.   
  
"I think I know how to save everyone."   
  
This caught there attention, not because it gave them hope but because it filled them with the direct opposite. Worry. Sarada hadn't accepted it. There was no saving anyone anymore.   
Almost all of them knew there would be no counterattack. That was reality.   
  
They were doomed. The only thing left to do was channel their efforts to protection of civilians and establishment of more secure hiding. Underground maybe.   
The essence of life as they knew it had changed. Humanity would go into hiding mode. Survival would be fought for, there were fears that unity would be lost and control would break apart if they weren't careful.   
  
**_The era of the ninja is over._**  
  
Sarada tore through some rubble, kicking up fallen walls, clearing out a space and looking up at the sky. Kicking down branches and fallen leaves with her head down, her determination was tangible. Mitsuki and Boruto shared a glance, a moment of pity.   
It was the blond who decided to reach out and gently take a hold of her arm when she refused to pay attention to their mentions of her name.   
  
"Sarada come on, unless you're planning something extreme.... no. Even if you are there's little it can do."   
When she frowned up at him, he saw realisation in her black eyes.   
  
"You don't believe me?"   
Instead of fighting she laughed, cooly. As if that were to be expected.   
  
"Sit down."  
  
They looked at each other than obeyed. Kawaki, reluctantly, with a few hisses and staggers of his body. Sarada wanted to heal him. She really did. They were looking at her with the eyes of a knowing doctor pitying an ignorant patient.   
Biting her lip, she decided not to waste their time.   
  
"I unlocked the Mangekyo Sharingan after the attack. For some reason it took me back to a time before the creation of ninja villages."  
She left out the link to Madara Uchiha. It was unlikely anyone but Mitsuki even knew who he was.   
  
"I think..." She had to phrase this right, to not sound crazy. "It's showing me hints throughout time, places that triggered the events of the present."   
Grabbing a stick, she drew a straight line, at the end of which there was an X. The death of the seventh. She didn't have to say it. She scratched another line into the earth, one extending from the centre of the first and going outwards to a new direction.   
  
At the start of this line, she planted another X.   
  
"This is where it began. If we can find a certain point, where everything went wrong, we can change it, deferring us onto a different path." She said with a mix of hope and uncertainty, looking up at them to see if they understood.   
Their blank faces hit her like a blow to the chest.   
  
"Sarada," Boruto said, and from her name alone she knew with irritation, that he was pitying her. Trying to let her down as softly as he could. "Didn't you... also hit your heard during that time? I'm not saying you don't have the mangekyou, just that the vision you saw could have been a hallucination. Like a dream."

"I'm not stupid. This was different than a dream Boruto. It was like a died for a second, everything was black and then everything was clearer. I could hear, smell, taste. They - the people in the past could hear me-"  
  
"Just listen to yourself for a second, you're talking about time travel." He said incredulously. The only reason that was a concept to them was thanks to novels and fiction movies. "Could the mangekyou even do that?"   
  
"Well we know papa's allowed him to travel through time/space and teleport through distance, why should this be any different?"  
  
"That was the rinnegan." Kawaki said, turning all heads towards him. He had his arm rested on a bent knee. His good knee. His expression was uncomfortable with all the attention, still feeling like enemy number one. "The rinnegan let him do that. Not that mangekyou."   
  
Sarada was getting frustrated. She was starting to regret sharing this, wishing she'd gone alone but... She wanted them with her. They were her team.   
Besides, she needed comfort. Some semblance of familiarity because that time had been so unfamiliar, it was scary. Mama had ensured to raise her that way - that if she ever felt afraid she wouldn't close off into herself.   
  
**_Never close your heart to your friends.  
_**  
At a loss for words, she stuttered.  
"Then how do you explain what I saw?"  
  
"We know from studying previous cases that the sharingan works in many ways. Namely, controlling the chakra flow in their opponents brain and projecting genjutsu to the areas that produce sounds and images. This creates hallucinations of another reality into their minds. This leads to the illusion of them controlling the world because they control that individual's centre, their brain and perception of the outer world: the illusion of hypnotic powers. As far as I know, this is how the sharingan works. By playing tricks on the mind, not by manipulating the world itself."  
  
"How... do you know that?" Sarada asked.   
"My parent told me." Mitsuki finished.   
  
Sarada breathed a sigh, knowing that her own knowledge on the subject was even less than a non-uchiha. It was frustrating, that father had been so tight lipped and the documents describing the mangekyou and Uchiha were so top-secret. Even to her. Her own people were shrouded in mystery. She was too hopeful. Maybe she had been foolish after all? Maybe she'd somehow placed a genjutsu on herself.   
  
"Suppose it is real, there's no harm in giving it a try." Kawaki sprung up.   
  
"Why would you want that?" Boruto instantly spat, quick to suspect his intentions.   
  
"That's a stupid question." Sarada butt in in his defence before he was even forced to answer. She knew he regretted letting Isshiki murder their fathers. But it was Isshiki. Not him. If he could prevent it, he'd do anything in his power too, before he was gone too.   
Her eyes said as much.   
  
"I do think it's worth a try. It could save us and if it doesn't, you're under my genjutsu. I'll just break you all out myself."   
  
They seemed to take this in. Boruto paused and reached out, poking Sarada in the arm. She felt his chakra sizzle into her skin and glared at him to ask what that was for.   
"Just checking he doesn't already have you under one. This could be a good scheme y'know."   
Sarada let him have that, shoulders shivering in the sharp, night cold.   
  
"If we do... wouldn't it be wise to go back to safety? Where our bodies can be monitored by adults?" Mitsuki proposed.   
"I considered this. One. I don't want all of the village knowing about the mangekyou just yet."   
  
That was fine. The village hid so much about the mangekyou they were afraid of how they would react.   
  
"Two. Mom would never let me go into this. Would your mom?"   
Boruto thought of Hinata and in seconds, shook his head. She'd take some convincing but they didn't have that kind of time.   
  
"Three, I don't want the village compromising our knowledge. The yamanaka would likely observe the whole thing and it's village secrets we'll be facing. We'd avoid the trouble of them censoring, erasing or lying about certain things if we go in ourselves and four-"  
"They wouldn't let me in." Kawaki grumbled.   
  
"Exactly."   
"So our bodies will be unguarded while we are here?"   
"I still believe our bodies will be moved physically into the past. If that's an issue we can do a test run."  
  
Silence stretched, Boruto took in a deep breath. Mitsuki's gold eyes flickered between the eyes of his friends.   
"I'm in." He said.   
  
Boruto gave an uncomfortable groan. His blue eyes glared at Kawaki, the scar over the jougan glaring him in the face like a reminder of his own sins.   
"Kawaki should do it. I don't trust myself to be here alone with him."   
  
"Fine." Sarada said, "Me and Kawaki will go in first."   
  
She walked over to him, sat before him and took ahold of his hands.  
  
"If this hurts, I'm sorry."  
  
He flinched at her every touch like a hurt kitten but he kept his head high, his eyes narrowed with focus.   
Sarada's eyes suddenly went from black to red. It was always a pretty sight, the ominous, fascinating glow in the darkness. It blurred everything in the already dark background into nothing but black. Her tomoe began to spin, his mouth falling open and his resistance fading.   
He felt he was being pulled in, head tilted, watching fascinated as it suddenly morphed into a shape he'd never seen.   
Like a sakura petal, inside a twisted kaleidoscope of thin, rippling black lines. They overlapped and raced. Suddenly his ears popped, ringing sharply. He hissed, tearing his gaze away and holding them in, swallowing and regaining his footing-  
  
Wait.   
  
Sarada gasped, their eyes locking as they stood somewhere on their feet, completely different to where they were before. Kawaki's jaw was slack, knowing exactly what she meant when she had described it before.   
  
His limbs were real, his body solid, the wind on his skin sharp and the detail pricklingly real down to the heat of the sun they knew was not there before.   
They were in the leaf.   
On a sunny day with birds tearing by with aggressively romantic tweets. It was so nostalgic it nearly brought a tear to her eye.   
Kawaki was still in shock, pressing his foot down into the solid earth, afraid it meant fall in.   
  
"Remember, this could be a genjutsu." She said, taking hand as if she might lose him. They were in a patch of dry land in the middle of a park. She saw wooden houses in the distance. The older, but not foreign kind with less windows and a slightly more traditional design. It wasn't the era of warring state, that was for sure.   
  
In a circle around them, there were trees.   
  
"Should we go and explore?" He asked softly, still dizzy from how bright it now was. From how real the sun felt. From her hand on his.   
  
"I think something should come to us. Last time, I didn't have to do much to have a hint revea-"  
  
"I see you two down there." A playful voice said with humour.   
  
They glanced up, backs pressing together as if they might have to fight. It wasn't a threat, but a boy, no more than fourteen years old. He was blurry from the rays of yellow sunlight behind him, but the branches of leaves above put patches of shadows on him. He had wavy black hair, intent eyes.   
  
He sat on the tree branch, one hand on the one above for support but other than that, he looked completely comfortable, legs hanging off and smirking. Most importantly, he wore a leaf headband comfortingly over his forehead.   
His eyes flicked up at the side, smirking.   
  
He thought they were a couple.   
  
"Ah- we weren't doing anything odd." Sarada said, trying to sound natural. It just made the boy chuckle, tilting his head and grinning.   
"I won't tell. You hiding from your parents?"   
  
She looked at Kawaki and gave a quiet nod. The stranger smiled.  
  
"How come I haven't seen you two around here before?"   
His tone was relaxed and friendly, but this could easily go wrong. They couldn't give too much information.   
  
"We're not from around here." She said. Kawaki was very much trapped in silence, still taking in their surroundings. That may have been a good thing.   
"What?" His smile fell. "You are an Uchiha right?"   
  
Sarada's throat gave an involuntary gulp. She'd forgotten how most people would know just from looking. She was so unused to having fellow clansmen, that identified her as one of them from just one glance.   
It was just as unnerving as it was... nice. Comforting. To be a part of something that made her heart warm with welcome pride.   
  
"Yes, sorry. I've had a recent head injury so my memories aren't all up to date. My friend here is staying by my side until I completely recover. We just got back from a long mission, you see."   
Even though she had faith that her lie, the man before her jumped down. He stood just above Kawaki's height, walking towards her.   
  
Sarada realised with surprise that she and Kawaki were smaller. Nowhere near eighteen years old. Now that she thought about it, she had been a child with Madara too. That must have explained why he wasn't as suspicious as he should have been.   
  
"What are you names?" He asked, standing loosely, both hands behind his back and still sightly smiling. He was clearly just being friendly, just curious about them.   
  
"Sakura." She lied. "And this is Kai."   
  
"Sakura Uchiha?" He gave a small snort. Sarada flinched with offense. "I'm sorry but I've never met an Uchiha named after a flower. Ah."   
He gave a playful expression than held up a finger, "Let me guess, you're Kaen and Shiri's daughter?" He said with laughter.   
  
Sarada gave a limp nod.   
  
"Of course! Who else would name their daughter that but them. Honestly," He started to walk around them in slow circles, talking to himself in an amusing, relaxed way. He seemed blissfully unaware of how tense they were.   
  
"I knew their daughter had been on a mission for while so I never got to meet ya. But here we are."  
A small change in the wind had his smile falling, but not in a threatening way.   
  
"Ah, that's my cue. It's meeting time soon so I've got to go prepare." He sighed, before leaning in and kissing her cheek. An Uchiha greeting? Sarada felt warm, she kissed his cheek back and then he was gone. She had always wanted a sibling and felt as if in another life, this boy could have been an older brother figure to her. Or a cousin. Or even just an Uchiha friend. Any family member at all would be nice. 

She looked at him, no smile, just staring. Her eyes saddening with pain and longing.   
  
"Tell your mom I said hi. I'll get aunty to make her some of them sweet she likes, then we can meet again. See ya~!"  
  
She felt emptiness as he left, waving until her head turned down.   
  
"That guy was totally flirting with you." Kawaki said abruptly, ending her sorrows with an almost choke.   
"He was not. He said we were both Uchiha's he was just being affectionate."   
"You never know. Maybe that didn't bother Uchiha's back then." He said with a rare, subtle smile in her direction. It was tiny, perhaps the result of the change of atmosphere.   
She hadn't seen Kawaki so relaxed in at least three years.   
  
"Oh shush. I doubt the Uchiha were like that, beside. Whoever he is, he's probably long dead."

Her smile was sad. Kawaki watched her face, he didn't say a thing.   
"Ah shoot. We didn't get his name." 

"Is it really important?" 

"He might be a clue. The last kid I saw when I did this grew into one of the most powerful shinobi in the world."

Kawaki considered that, lips parted in the direction the boy had left. There was still so much he didn't know about the world. What Boruto had told him only stretched back so far.  
  
"We should get going." She sighed, "The other's must be worried."   
It was supposed to be a trial and they'd already stayed too long. Still, something about this beautiful, calm day and it's homely safety pulled her in. She didn't want to leave. She wanted to spend hours with her clan. With that boy and maybe even a younger version of her papa.   
She didn't even know what era this was. He could have been her grandfather. Maybe even her great grandfather.   
  
Or maybe he was as young as her papa.   
  
The black air of the night and the scent of ruin returned. Sarada sighed, not wanting to be back here. Not wanting to have to face reality. 

Before they left, the Uchiha watching them from the leaves narrowed his eyes. Sakura Uchiha? Yeah right. Kaen and Shiri weren't even real clan members. The stranger's had failed his test and proven they were strange. He planned to observe them but somehow, before he knew it they were gone. 

He'd keep an eye on them. 

Their strange clothes, strange hair. Everything about them was foreign, as if they'd dropped in from another planet or time. 

He couldn't stop the cautious feeling in his chest.   
  
When Sarada worked up the strength to look up again, she was in the ruins. It was night time, the moon hid behind clouds and the leaf was a broken heap. Boruto and Mitsuki were pale.   
  
"Well?" She said, "Did we pass out or were we gone?"   
  
"It's real." Boruto spurted, only hearing her question after he'd said it. "You two were gone. Really gone for a second there."   
"And then we came back passed out?" Kawaki asked.   
They looked at each other and shook their heads. "You came back just now. Awake."   
"Let me get this straight, we were only gone for a second?"   
  
"Maybe less." Mitsuki said, studying them.   
  
Hope bubbled in Sarada's chest.   
  
"We were in there for at least fifteen minutes. We can do this. We can really go back and save them."   
Her smile was the only thing positive in their world. Eager to go back, Kawaki agreed. Mitsuki held Kawaki's damaged finger and Boruto touched Sarada's.   
  
Then, ignoring the sting in the back of her head, they were gone. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please tell me what you thought in the comments below!  
> Any guesses who the anonymous Uchiha was?  
> Also, share any particular places/times/events that you want them to travel to. For example, third hokage vs Orochimaru?


	3. Konoha's longest day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With no time for rest, they're plunged right into the disaster of the nine tails attack.  
> It's eerily similar to their own disaster, showing them things the history books never could. 
> 
> Kawaki learns the village really is filled with love. Boruto sees that his grandparents were amazing people and realises how terrifying the nine tails used to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter, the Uchiha was Shisui. I like to consider him one of the most talented mangekyo uses in Uchiha history, which is why Sarada's sharingan led her to him.

The first place they arrive is a night. 

Mild, autumn air and fresh orange leaves.  
Boruto opens his eyes, gasping and almost falling out of the tree they'd landed on. He manages to restore his grip, watching Sarada with confusion. As if to ask what on earth she had done.   
His jougan and scar still disturbed her but she did her best to hide it.   
  
"It seems we're in the leaf." Mitsuki whispered. He went quiet when he was shocked. They all knew that despite not being born there, he did miss his home. The home they never thought they'd see again, but here it was. Booming, bustling and filled with tranquil, comfortable night life.   
  
The sky was dark and inky, but the village was so busy it was comforting. Warm lighting from red and ginger lanterns outside restaurants were pretty. A lot of the buildings were made of wood and tatami. They weren't as tall. It gave the place a more intimate, homely sensation.   
  
It was pretty; rustic and different from the leaf they knew.   
But it's soul was the same.  
  
Sarada laid her hand on the living tree under them. It was stupid, but she mourned the fact that the tree would soon be destroyed.   
The question was, how soon?   
  
"When exactly are we?" Kawaki muttered, on the same train of thought as her.   
  
Mitsuki was first to act, slipping up higher above them and landing on top of a light post. He took a good look around and Boruto exhaled before following.   
He had a yearning in his eyes, a hunger to go back in time to when things were really okay. Four stone faces stared back at them. Boruto's blue eyes stared up, a forlorn look on his face. An uncomfortable feeling settled in his stomach. He nodded at Mitsuki and they both headed back to the tree Sarada and Kawaki hid in.   
  
"Four stone faces. This must be before granny Tsunade became the fifth."   
He didn't say it with excitement, but apprehension.When he looked at Kawaki, his voice was severe. "We're at least thirty years before you decide to kill everyone."   
  
"I-" Kawaki didn't try to defend himself. He lowered his head and glared at the ground.   
"Stop it." Sarada said, biting her thumb nail in thought. "We need to look around. You two can go off, I'll stay with Kawaki-"  
"Why does he always get to go with you-"  
  
"Because you said yourself you're not mature enough to be with him." Sarada cut him off, only to see that Boruto had no fight in his eyes.   
  
"I didn't mean it like that. I mean, I'm worried about you too. I think Kawaki and Mitsuki should be together in this one. I want to stay with you."   
It was only after saying those last words that Boruto realised how that sounded. They all did, but no one acknowledged it.   
  
"Tch." Kawaki hopped towards Mitsuki. For him, that was as much of a peace offering as they'd get.  
  
"We'll walk around but stay near. If I need you I'll give the signal." Mitsuki said calmly, looking at Sarada without blinking.   
"Yeah," She said, grateful for the distraction. "Try not to stick out too much. Stay hidden, we just need to observe for a while."   
  
"Okay," they agreed before flickering off.   
  
She didn't want to be alone with Boruto. Just in case he brought papa and the seventh up. Anything but that. She'd been avoiding him and ignoring the memories in her heart and chest. She feared acknowledging it would blow her apart form the inside.   
  
"Sarada, we need to talk-"  
  
  
Great. Just great.

* * *

Mitsuki stopped in the shadows of a bar. The hid and observed in silence as people emerged, drunk singing and bantering.   
This must have been times of peace. That narrowed down the timeline in Mitsuki's mind.   
It was homely but there was something kind of off. The air smelled faintly of chakra. As they hopped from one place to the other, the air was almost too quiet. Though, if it was just him being overly alert, he wouldn't be too shocked.   
  
"Is it just me or is something not quite right?" 

Ah. So Kawaki felt it too. As if the air had heard him, the feeling doubled.   
Mitsuki put his hand over Kawaki's lips to silence him as he heard something strange. It was a group of men with the Uchiha crest on their back. There were only three of them but it was a lot more than they were used to. Their height, dark hair and black clothes were intimidating. Unexpected.   
  
The drunk man in their hands they were arresting seemed to agree as he started to slur.   
"Fuck the Uchiha - fucking... think they're better. All the time... just cause they're allowed to be the police."   
  
Kawaki didn't think much of it. The small conflict was settled. They knocked the guy out, carrying him away and his companions let them, growing quiet.   
Soon people were laughing again. The incident forgotten. The air, still off. Perhaps the bad feeling was coming from inside him. He looked at Mitsuki's and felt his insides churn with guilt once more.   
  
"Are you really angry at me, or are you just following Boruto like you always do?"   
  
Mitsuki tensed and then looked at him. His eyes always cheeped him out. They were so yellow, blinking like a snake's. They could look so human but just as easily, they could have no emotion at all.   
  
"No." Mitsuki said softly, the lights of the village illuminating him from below. The moon was in the background. "I don't hate you. You are just like me."   
Kawaki frowned and leaned in, "What does that mean?"   
  
A ripple of thunder cut them off. Only it wasn't thunder, it was louder. Much louder, as if it came from right-

"Ah. So that's what day it is."

Mitsuki said, as if it were just another sunday.

* * *

"What?" Her voice was so soft, so defeated. Boruto watched the mask of a team leader slip off of her when it was just them alone. 

She was one of the first people he thought about actually, when it first happened. He wanted to check on her but, he hadn't.   
She'd been so busy. Saving lives. He didn't want to interrupt.   
  
But he needed her.  
  
He knew it was stupid and was embarrassed to admit it. In a way, she was the only person in the world who understood how he felt. Himawari too but his sister had been acting so strong. It scared him, how amazing Himawari was, carrying their mother through this time better than he ever could.   
  
Boruto couldn't bare to show Hima how disappointingly weak her big brother was right now.   
  
Sarada sighed and just like that, she sank against him, hugging him tight. He welcomed her and that was all they needed. They didn't share any words for at least thirty seconds. They didn't even know what to say. There was just _so_ much.   
  
"I'm glad you're okay." He said at last. He didn't mention any of the things she feared he would. For that, she was relieved.   
  
"You too."   
  
Just like always, the mangekyou through something at her out of nowhere.  
It was a baby's cry. The sound made them both freeze, then shuffle through the trees towards it. They stuck close, hidden under leaves until the baby came into view. Two Uchiha boys sat before them.   
  
It filled her with nostalgia, so reminiscent of her first trip she forgot Boruto was there for a moment. She was certain it meant something, some form of parallelism. They laid flat in the trees above a complex. A large, traditional house with sliding doors that extended to an elevated ledge below the boys. They sat on the very edge, dangling their legs, overlooking a garden.  
There, the baby lay, swayed gently in the arms of a boy surely too tiny to be looking after him alone.   
  
Boruto's body relaxed. Watching them was kind of nostalgic, it reminded him of baby Himawari, and how he could still remember the heaviness of her tiny body, bundled in blankets in his arms.  
"Hm. That's cute-" He whispered to Sarada but was cut off by the older looking up right at them. They froze. Sarada wanted to slap Boruto but then, the older child spoke.   
  
"What is this awful feeling..."  
  
As soon as he said it, Sarada felt it too. She felt worry. Like something other than Boruto was behind her. Looking back at him with a frown, the Uzumaki nodded. Now that it was mentioned, he felt it too.   
Something was really, really wrong.   
  
The baby started to cry louder, shocking them both and making them uncomfortable.   
  
"There there," The big brother soothed and it was just like her first vision. So eerily powerful goosebumps pricked on her skin. They had to go-  
"Don't cry Sasuke."   
  
Sarada gasped. She didn't know why she did because it should have been obvious. Her visions would show her her papa. Of course it would. So why was she crying? Why were her eyes stinging as she looked down at the smallest, most innocent looking child in the world.   
So frail and tiny. She replayed in her mind how he had died and suddenly, here was reborn again. Boruto's hands gripped her shoulders, they squeezed and it allowed her to pull back to reality.   
  
"Your big brother has you. I'll always protect you. No matter what."   
  
Mitsuki's whistle was furious and fast. Their heads whipped back and they disappeared at just the wrong moment.   
They were mid leap when a roar trembled through the earth.  
It tore across the sky, disrupting their footing so they both stumbled mid flicker. They crashed together, barely caught on the ground, exposed for everyone to see. Thankfully, no one noticed. They were too busy, all eyes staring up just behind them with fear.   
  
Someone stumbled back.   
  
Three Uchiha before them grit their teeth and vanished. They had just enough time to turn, heads up with a horrible sensation at letting the source of that cry come from their blind shot them. As far as Sarada knew, Kawaki was the worst tragedy to ever hit the ninja world. 

Everyone spoke about how things had never gotten so severe.   
  
It made her believe that tragedies of the past were never as bad as her own. When the nine tails roared up into the sky, it wasn't on some distance battlefield, far from the safety of the leaf, as she'd imagined. It was here. Right here in the heart of the village, with old women and babies like her papa open to attack.   
  
Suddenly a huge fox, two times the size of the gigantic glowing cloak that once framed the seventh crashed down above them. Houses shattered on impact and those nine, vicious tails started to tear towers and buildings apart.   
  
"Is that.." Sarada started voice dry in the darkness. Everything was suddenly so loud, she sounded no louder than a whisper.   
"Kurama!?" Boruto snapped in shock, breaking into a sprint.   
Nine tails swirled around the moon, their motions wild, erratic and filled with rage.   
"Wait!"   
She grabbed him just in time, shards of snapped wood flying towards them and lying flat on the ground. He would have moved away in time anyway, but something about having contact with him reassured her.   
  
He was reckless.   
  
"We need to meet up with the others, Kawaki could have gotten out of control-"   
  
They didn't admit it, but that's what it felt like. As different as this world and attack was, it was achingly familiar to their own era's disaster. The disruption of domestication, the calm city plunged into panic of the like they'd never seen. The both of them felt lost and unfamiliar. There was nobody they knew to give them orders and nothing to comfort them.  
  
"We're here." Mitsuki said from nowhere, appearing behind her. She wondered how long they had been, eyes briefly locking onto Kawaki's with guilt.   
He didn't appear phased by her accusation. He didn't look any more disturbed than the rest of them.   
  
"Waiting for your orders."   
  
Sarada didn't waste any more time.   
  
"Save lives but don't panic. We know they survive this without our intervention so let's not get too involved. Try not to be seen."   
With a swish of her dark hair, she turned to look at her three teammates and said, "We're going towards it." 

* * *

It was a pain in her chest, to leave the baby Sasuke. The boy tasked with protecting him was practically a baby himself. Who was that boy, anyway? Mama had told her she'd once had an uncle but that he'd passed when papa was a teen. Her eyes clenched shut several times, trying to stay dry as they tore through trees and above buildings.   
No matter how much she steeled her chest, she couldn't stop her worry.   
  
_He had to be okay._  
  
Fate decided it, history knew that Sasuke Uchiha would live passed this day.   
  
"Look out!"   
  
An explosive hiss of the wind broke her from her trance, she dipped out the way but crashed straight into the ninja who tried to save her. It was an unfamiliar senior in a green jounin jacket.  
All her teammates shuddered to a stop. He wouldn't let her go. Everyone was running in the opposite direction to them, away from the point of impact and they stood out.   
  
"What do you think you're doing! Only select personal are to head in that direction. Teenagers are to join the shelters."   
Rage flooded Sarada but it was drowned in realisation that this was a different time. She had no authority, in fact female kunoichi as whole weren't yet recognised as total equals.   
  
"I have orders under the fourth to get there-"  
She said, gaze hardening. They really couldn't be dealing with distractions, when she sensed in her eyes that the reason they were here was up ahead.   
  
"Now I know that's bullshit. The fourth hasn't issued a single order since he disappeared in that-"  
"We're with root." Mitsuki said, eyes giving a flash that made the jounin wince. "Forgive the abruptness but we're in a hurry."   
Snatching Sarada, as that was the only way to please the male, he pulled her away, leaving him in their dust. They quickly caught up to the others, vanishing to throw any staring eyes off. The monster of the nine tails only grew huger with every step they took.   
  
"What was that?" Sarada bit, thankful but confused.   
Mitsuki stared ahead.  
  
"I used a bit of my knowledge of this time to my advantage. A village elder had his own organisation of elites in this time, separate to Hokage orders. We can use this to justify our actions to anyone without a mask but it's a gamble. It's only a matter of time before we run into a root member ourselves."   
She didn't question Mitsuki's extensive knowledge.   
  
He'd been raised in the remnants of the sound village, where international secrets were exchanged like sweets.   
"That's-"  
  
They were interrupted by a claw the size of a small building thudding rapidly into the ground. It was so fast. The team split up in four different directions, Kawaki staggering and getting hit with an ear splitting ache in his brain.   
"Mitsuki!" The leader cried.   
  
"On it." The snake said, grasping their injured team mate in a white snake. In a flash of a second, everything sped up, tugging Mitsuki towards him, wind throwing them back as Sarada and Boruto pushed forward, right up the arms and back of the fox like it were a mountain. A moving mountain, striking at ninja all around them cruelly, snapping spines and breaking necks. There was blood, horrifying amounts and Kunai and ninjutsu faltered at Kurama's thick fur. The only reason they weren't among the casualties was their experience.  
  
They'd faced Naruto in practice, back when he would laugh and it was fun.   
"Is it just me or is he bigger to you?"   
"He's bigger."   
  
She agreed, another wave of Shinobi getting cut down brutally. Sarada's pace slowed, turning her head at a man who was ripped in two. He'd died. Four had in the last second. Even at Kawaki's battle she hadn't watched people die so quick. With Naruto and Papa there was no need for battles were ninja threw away their lives like that. She was used to trying to save every comrade possible. She was a medical ninja, a leader, who felt every death in her presence was her fault.   
  
A feeling in her gut wrenched awfully as Boruto, failing to notice charged right up to the head of the beast.   
"What is he-"  
  
"Kurama!" Boruto snapped, spinning over his head and pressing his fingers into his forehead. It raged, snapping its jaws closed around his head and for a second, she thought he'd been eaten. He reappeared further back. Boruto couldn't accept this. He'd known Kurama all his life. It wasn't like him to cut down buildings and take away lives.   
  
He just needed to talk.   
  
"Kurama, it's me! What's up with you - is something wrong?"   
  
"Boruto are you serious!? Stop it! I told you we're not-"  
She was cut off. A ninja came too close to her and she had to dive to not be spotted. Boruto's stupid flashy cloak, the glow of his blue eyes and his bright hair attracted too much attention. He ran down the nine tails nostrils and jumped onto it's shoulder.   
He stared up into it's eyes and almost stumbled back with shock.   
  
"K-kurama..."   
  
"Idiot! This isn't the same creature. He doesn't know you."   
  
Sarada pounced on him out of nowhere and snatched him all the way off the fox. It wasn't him. Their hint was here, but it wasn't this. Just as well, because all nine tails suddenly turned away, as if sensing something, its fur pricked.   
  
She pulled Boruto backwards despite his fight, the blond gritting his teeth and reluctantly going still as they hid. An old man in khaki armour led several ninja through the skies, diverting buildings and doing as much as they could against an enemy thirty times their power and size. The third.   
It was uncomfortable to see him alive and moving. It was completely different than the drawings and carvings she knew, he was far smaller and frailer than expected. This was the fourth's era, after all.   
  
"You saw the eye didn't you..." Boruto's voice snapped through the air like broken branches.  
"What? No. I was busy stopping you from getting killed."   
"It had sharingan."  
  
_"What?"_  
  
Before she could dwell, chakra like poision flashed through the air. All eyes went up, even Mitsuki and Kawaki from the ground sensed the unsettling bubble of a bijuu bomb being formed.   
Nobody in the leaf seemed to react the way they did.   
The jounin beside the two males recognised it was bad and got to fighting. They didn't know how _bad_. It could flatten a mountain. Obliterate an entire village with ease. This generation probably didn't know its power.   
  
They were running back yards but they should have been sprinting for miles. No. There was no way they'd make it in time even if they tried.  
  
"Sarada..!" Boruto exclaimed, clearly on the same line of thought.   
It was useless, if they didn't intervene the village would be flattened in seconds. She couldn't imagined that frail old hokage could stop it. Maybe their intervention was part of fate?  
  
"I can seal it." Boruto said, frantic and itching to move. Despite her orders, she gave in and said, "Quick."   
Appearing on the head of the nine tails again as a pair, Sarada made sure nothing distracted Boruto from his post, as blue ink glimmered and glowed up his skin. His hand outstretched, sickened at the sight of the dark, premature mount Kage ahead of his vision.   
  
_Like PTSD, he could feel that day replaying in his head._  
_They day it was ripped apart to nothing but broken shards of faces._  
_Their ancestors spat on._  
_Their world destroyed._  
  
Boruto could save the leaf. Could soothe his agony at not being able to save the present, by redeeming himself in the past. A seal spread out from his fingers, out into the air just ahead of kurama's lips when-

Naruto appeared on the mountain before him. He flickered and stood on the stone head of the fourth Hokage.   
It wasn't a hallucination.   
It was clear as day, a speck of a white flowing jacket, dipped in red flames, with words written along the back back. A symbol of confidence and hope that had Boruto stuttering to a distracted stop.   
His mouth parted, throat too choked to form the words, but he didn't need to.   
  
Sarada gasped it for him, quiet as if she didn't believe what she saw.   
  
"Seventh...?"  
  
The bomb ripped out into the air. Boruto was too slow and it charged towards his dad. An awful cry of "NO!" Tore into the air.   
It took several seconds to realise that the cry had come from him. But there was no reason, as the figure cast a seal so huge it spread up the night sky, sucking the entire bomb into an invisible line. All went still. 

It was gone.   
The hokage, had gone in a flash.   
  
Only the mountain, four unharmed, nostalgic and eerie faces remained, staring back at them lifelessly. Then blue light boomed across the sky in the distant, lighting up the night as if it were day for a split second, like a catastrophe.   
  
Boruto and Sarada locked eyes and nodded.   
  
That way. 

What they were here for, was that way. 

* * *

Sarada's signal whistled in the air. 

  
Mitsuki sensed the vibration, heard it and responded back subtly. They couldn't come, held up but in no danger. Somehow, they found themselves hostage to a gathering of vaguely familiar faces.   
  
"Nobody under eighteen will fight." 

It was insisted by one of the circle of ninja imprisoning them.   
  
The air smelled of death. The casualties uncounted but they felt in their souls that the numbers were high. Mitsuki could tell that everyone around them feared this would be the end of the leaf. It terrified them. He wanted to tell them the future, but kept his mouth held shut. One thing that was clear to both boys, was that no one knew who the real enemy was.   
  
There was panic. Disorder among the young Jounin and Chunin who wanted to fight and were more than trained to, but were kept still.   
Both related to that feeling, that desire to fight back whilst being stopped. It was frustration.   
Kawaki was sure he'd seen a child watch in horror as their parent was ripped from them by falling rocks. The parent lay still and Kawaki's head ached as if trying to disconnect from the reality.   
He couldn't imagine how the kid felt. 

Among them was the young sixth hokage. Metal's father... no. The old godfather who looked after him sometimes. It was surreal to see him out of a wheel chair, with arms and legs strong enough to defend a town.   
  
"Are you serious?! We could be out there saving lives, dad. Because of you keeping us there, vulnerable people will be killed-"  
  
"I will let them die!" The male voice thudded, silencing the girl who Mitsuki realised was Mirai sensei's mother. He tugged Kawaki to the back of the crowd, realising it was foolish, as they wouldn't be recognised. It still felt off.   
  
Tingles pricked on Kawaki's skin.   
  
The man was trying to protect his child. He knew this emotion. Naruto introduced it to him. It was the first time in his life he'd ever felt loved. It took his breath away, how history seemed cursed to repeat in this village.   
  
"I will take responsibility," The older ninja continued with no shame but so, so much pain. "If it means securing the next generation, I will do anything to keep you safe here."   
  
_The next generation huh. So what... Kawaki could kill them himself after that?  
_  
He sat with the helpless group, forced still, protected by people who didn't even know him. People who he may have even killed thirty years from now.  
Sitting among them, he felt like a traitor, undeserving of witnessing this moment of patriotism, care and connection between shinobi of the leaf. 

* * *

Of course, it wasn't Naruto.   
  
As much as they wanted it to be, they weren't surprised that on closer inspection, that man was not Boruto's father.   
  
His blond hair, pale and heavy with dirt. His skin, caked in blood and sweat. From his blue eyes, tears fell in two long, heavy ropes.   
Sarada's body slowed, feeling like it weighed of led.   
  
Compared to Naruto, he was more handsome. 

Younger.   
  
_They were too late._  
  
In a bubble before them, a sight she'd only ever heard whispers about played before them. Boruto's mind remembered ever whisper he'd ever heard about the event, all at once. It hit him, it made his breath short.   
  
_Your grandfather was a hero, dying to save the village and Naruto the day he was born._  
  
Boruto knew his grandfather had died long ago. He'd always imagined a stereotypical hero he didn't have interest in. Another version of his dad. A man who was cold and so perfect, it made him distant.   
  
Naruto had never spoken fondly of his grandfather. He couldn't. They didn't share any real moments together but this...  
  
All of this felt so, painful real.   
  
Minato grit his teeth, skidding his feet in the floor to stop the claw tearing through him and his wife from reaching their son. Suddenly he understood why Sarada had gone so quiet seeing Sasuke. Seeing his father, naked and newborn was like being plunged to a different reality. 

It was beautiful, poetic. Terrifying. To be killed and then to live.   
  
A drop of blood fell on Naruto's chest, his mother choking awfully as Minato summoned a frog.   
They were saying their first and final words to their baby.  
  
Boruto realised with a rush of adrenaline that this was the day this _young, shockingly young_ couple lost their lives. The grandparents he'd never meet. He wondered if they'd lived, would they smile at Hima, would they keep old man Hiashi company up in that huge lonely estate? Would he visit them to have tea and would they live to comfort him now that father was-  
  
His body forgot all else. 

He stepped forward and sprinted towards his ancestors.  
  
Sarada's hands coiled around his waist, holding him still with a gasp.   
  
Only Kushina's voice could be heard through the quiet pain of the autumn air. The third's group were too far back to be heard. The time travellers, barely hidden by the trees.   
Sarada was warm. Holding him from behind. As much as her touch was trying to pull him back, he felt her face rest on his shoulder blades with a touch of something more caring. Kushina was just as beautiful as he'd been told. Just as strong, her words striking into Boruto and making him regret every second he'd spent of his life not respecting them.   
  
_"Make friends... you don't need lots of them, just the one's you can really trust."_  
  
Boruto's chest felt tight.   
It suddenly felt appropriate that only Sarada was with him.  
  
Naruto cried, voice soft to the gentle whisper of Kushina's sweet words.   
  
"We can save them..."   
He whispered, voice croaking like he'd swallowed steel.   
  
Sarada wanted to. She wanted to but shook her head.   
"No. We can't."   
  
This was her fault. Boruto had been through enough. He should never have to see his grandparents death like this but she'd forced him to come, failed to protect him. It was no wonder he was trying to tear away from her to get to them. She refused to let go.   
  
_"You're going to face lots of pain, and hardship..."  
_  
"We can do it. We have better medical ninjutsu." He glanced over both shoulders at the group striking at the walls of the seal, trying to get in. "No one's around. No one was here to heal them-"  
  
"Boruto, we can't risk altering the past," She said, holding onto him now like a hug. He was crying. There were tears bubbling in his eyes at first, but now they were full on spilling down his cheeks.   
  
"That's why we're here, isn't it?" Suddenly he turned to her. He'd lost so much today. He needed hope, just a bit, as small of an amount as it was. His fingers reached up to her face and lifted her red eyes to his.   
Just looking at him, made it impossible not to cry. Never, had she seen her classes ray of sunshine cry like this. She shook her head but he didn't want listen.   
"That's why your eyes brought us here. To change the passed and save - save dad. If we save the fourth they could both take on Kawaki. He... he might know something or-"  
  
"Boruto," Sarada's voice was conflicted and soft. "We can't. If we bring back the fourth, Naruto would never have been the nine tails. He would have never grown strong enough to win the war without the pain that made him stronger. He may not even live to get to have..."   
  
You. To have you.   
  
Sarada couldn't risk a change so huge.   
  
But the Uzumaki's chest went tight and his words went cold.   
  
"You don't care." He whispered in shock, "If it won't save your papa directly you don'-"  
Just the look in her eyes made him stop.   
  
Who was he kidding.   
He'd said that because he knew it would hurt.   
  
He knew for a fact that Sarada loved his dad just as much as he did.   
  
"It's okay." She breathed. She forgave him, because even though he said cruel things, she felt it was her fault and she deserved it.   
  
_"There's so much more I wish I could pass on... I wish I could stay with you. I love you."  
_  
Boruto's eyes changed as he registered those words, turned just in time to see Minato say his final goodbye, before their two bodies went still. Kurama had disappeared, the barrier tearing apart, the third rushing in. 

He cried.

Sarada wanted to be a Hokage. Here, she'd seen two openly weep. When he picked the baby Naruto up, holding him tight to his chest and keeping him warm, she felt something tear inside her. Naruto would never grow up with parents. He'd be alone but, as Minato had said, the village was his family. 

The village would care for him. 

Her, Boruto, Mitsuki and even Kawaki were connected to him. They had been from the moment of Naruto's birth, because his father, the fourth hokage has sworn him the child of the village. 

Their time here was ending, a swirl of satisfaction in her eyes letting her know that they wouldn't be here for long. 

"Come on," She whispered, ushering Boruto back into the trees. Staring, he didn't want to leave. He wanted to watch his dad and ensure he grew up safe, and Sarada could relate. But they had to move on. They had a future to save. 

Her hand squeezed his shoulder, the same way he had done to her. 

It gave Boruto the strength to finally move away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it, please leave a comment if you did. 
> 
> Again, ideas of places/people for them to meet are welcome.


	4. Uchiha Shrine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is one more secret waiting in Konoha's longest day.  
> It plunges them into a world were everything is surreal, revealing that the Uchiha clan have more secrets than they'd thought.

If the attack had been familiar, the aftermath was even more so.   
  
A village in the aftermath of destruction always felt the same. Baby Naruto was hidden away in some hospital, the third, collapsing into despair before becoming a leader again.   
The night was crisp with cold loss as they walked back through shattered homes. The vibrant wooden homes that dated back to the first's era were permanently lost, never to be seen again.   
  
But it would rebuild. It might not be the same, but it would still be a home. Sarada got by off the comfort of Shinobi voices, still ringing out strong compared to silence. Even still, she didn't want to be around to hear children cry over lost parents.  
  
_That was all too relatable._  
  
The pair almost crashed right into Mitsuki and Kawaki, both boys eyeing them like hawks the moment they regrouped. Mitsuki went straight for Boruto, his presence giving the blond the strength to put on a brave face. She was relieved.   
  
One thing that was consistent through her entire life, was Mitsuki and Boruto's friendship. The two were the very definition of through thick and thin and she couldn't help be grateful for this. If hell froze over, Mitsuki would still be there to make Boruto smile.   
"Stay here. I have one last place to check before we go." 

Despite her words, they insisted they follow. It was safer, she was their lifeline. Fine. Sarada moved quick without a glance back or care that they might not keep up. Before she knew it, her feet clanked onto the very tree they'd started in.The Uchiha home, large, quiet and haunting remained untouched before her eyes. She'd never lived there, yet it felt inexplicably, sorely homelike.   
  
Even now, when it was empty.   
Sasuke and her late uncle, were gone.   
  
"They could be in the shelters," Boruto offered helpfully as he caught up. Sarada's eyes on the windows were serene.   
"It's fine. I already know he's okay."  
  
The wind blew, a signal to her soul that they should get back. She didn't want to honestly. She wanted to stay, in a time where saving lives and cleaning rubble would actually feel productive, not destined to fail. A nice fantasy, in this dream like-

Suddenly, the bad feeling in her chest tripled, just as she was reaching out to hold hands with her friends and get them out.   
  
_**"Interesting."**_  
Sarada had never heard a voice so deep. So low, it didn't matter what it said, it felt evil.   
  
"Sarad-"   
Mitsuki _gasped._  
  
That was terrifying enough. He was always calm.   
  
"Grab on!" She started, but it came out so much quieter than she hoped as all their hands locked together in a rapid slap. It was no use. All at once, her body went stiff, as if time had slowed down so she could take it all in.   
Boruto, Mitsuki and Kawaki stood before her in the dark, looking up at her with fear.   
  
No. Not at her.  
  
Behind her.   
  
Sarada choked and forced out a strained cry, watching as Karma raced up both Boruto and Kawaki's skin, bodies leaning back like cat's shying from a wolf. She felt as if she were being pulled into darkness, tugged back to a place much like the abyss she'd first fallen into.   
_Space time.  
_  
Sarada's back pricked with ice as it touched her skin, pulling her away from her friends, into a starless bed of death.   
She'd never moved so fast in her life.   
  
Mangekyou shrieked with a sound akin to blades slicing on silver. It was so loud, it clashed over even their screams as they tumbled down several feet of height. In a sudden flash, all four of them collapsed onto a different ground.   
  
A new time.   
With new air, lighting and people.   
  
No people, most importantly.  
  
Sarada sucked in the hugest intake of breath.   
The tension burst and suddenly, they could move. Rushing to her at once, Boruto held her up, Mitsuki checked her vitals. Kawaki stared, wide eyes and unsure of what to do.   
It wasn't until she'd stopped panting that he looked away, glaring at the side in worry.   
  
"I-I'm okay..."   
  
She didn't sound okay. Neither of her teammates wanted to point this out. Instead, Mitsuki reported on their new environment.  
  
"It appears we're in a room, dim lights, wooden walls. Clean, basic furniture."   
  
Sarada blinked, reminded of the home Sasuke and his brother had sat in before. Maybe it was.   
  
Kawaki breathed a sigh.   
  
"We're in someone's house. We should move before we get caught-"  
  
"I'm sorry- Are we not gonna talk about what the hell that was!?" Boruto exclaimed incredulous.   
Sarada didn't know what to say. _She didn't know.  
_  
"That man, he wore a mask and black cloak and... I don't want to sound crazy but I know I saw a sharingan."   
The room went silent again.   
  
Obviously, Uchiha's were alive during that time. Obviously, if an Uchiha thought they were suspicious, they would turn their sharingan to them. But they'd never thought a leaf ninja's chakra could feel so... evil.   
  
It couldn't be described. His chakra didn't feel dirty like Jigen's or the rest of Kara's. It was something else. Like blood or poison but worse. It was obvious they were all thinking but not suggesting that Sarada's relatives could be evil. The Uchiha exhaled a tired sigh.   
  
"I... I didn't see it." She stated. "He was behind so I didn't get a good look-"  
Kawaki blurted out a "huh?"  
  
Sarada gave him a stare.   
  
"He was in front of you." Mitsuki said, puzzled. "He literally had a hand through your chest."   
  
_"What?"_  
  
Her eyes jerked down to her chest, relieved to see it was all in one shape. That explained the jolting of her head. But him looking at her.   
Now that she thought about it, the world had been spinning. She thought she could recall a hypnotic buzz.   
Her head shook, slapping her cheeks to ground herself into this world.   
  
"I don't know what that was, but it wasn't the reason we were there." She glanced down at her chest again, nervously making sure. For certain, her instinct hadn't led her to that man. She hadn't even been aware of his presence.   
  
"I don't think he was a clue so let's not dwell on it-"  
  
"Are you sure we shouldn't? That was terrifying." Boruto said, gritting his teeth, "I don't like that there's someone out there who can do that. He really did sneak up on us, did any of you sense him?"   
They shook their heads, realisation scaring them even more.   
  
This wasn't good for morale, Sarada had to butt in, "guys, I said drop it."   
"I swear he almost warped Sarada in for a moment there. If he's this strong we can't ignore him-"  
"Boruto, shush."   
  
At long last he obeyed, an uneasy expression on his face.   
She'd love to make that face too but, she was team leader. As stressed as she was, she had to stay in charge here. The last thing she needed was to get caught up in some struggle they didn't need to.   
  
"So we know there's a strong mangekyou user. That's to be expected. The Uchiha were powerful, right Mitsuki?"  
He held her gaze, and gave a nod.   
  
"For all we know, he's long dead now. Not a threat. What's important, is that we find out what time we're in now and don't get distracted from our next clue."   
"What even was the last clue?" Kawaki asked, feeling left out from the loop. "And the boy before that, what was any of this about?"   
  
Sarada realised that no one felt the click but her. Only she knew all the visions.   
She knew that the one thing consistent with all three, were Uchiha clan members. It was possible the Uchiha had a jutsu or a secret that could save papa.   
"We'll have to talk things out back home where it's safer."   
  
As ironic as that sounded, it was true.   
"Weren't we supposed to go back now? I don't know about you but I have this awful ache in my head every time we jump." Boruto said, eyes flashing exhaustion for just a second.   
Sarada made a long blink.   
  
Of course he wanted a break. After what he'd just seen, she'd want to lie in bed for at least an entire night. That was the minimum. Instead she'd plunged him right into another, possibly traumatic scene.   
  
"Sarada is exhausted too. Perhaps we should try and rest here?" Mitsuki offered. Sarada shook her head.   
  
"Next time. After this. I was going to take us there but when that mangekyou user showed up I panicked. I took us away without aiming. I'm sorry. We'll talk after that, I promise. Do you think you can manage one last go?"   
Boruto held her gaze, and slowly lifted his mouth to a relaxing smile.   
  
"I'm the grandchild of the fourth and son of the seventh." He blinked with a new pride he'd never felt before, "I can manage."   
  
Sarada smiled with relief.   
Good.   
He wasn't as hurt as she'd thought. They could go on. She didn't have to feel so bad.   
  
"First things first, we should probably leave this stranger's house." Mitsuki muttered, to which they all agreed in a heartbeat. 

* * *

The whole mood was different, as they escaped into a twilight village. A part of the village, that was somewhat serene and different, despite it's busy, vague familiarity.   
Dozens of people walked in groups and they were among them.   
It was far from silent but considering the number of people, the roads were hushed in a gentle, almost religious way. It didn't help that each house had a bell attached to the old tatami doors. They chimed in the slow wind.   
  
People talked in hushed voices, faces serene but not smiling.   
It was comfortable and uncomfortable all at once.   
There were still four faces on the mountain. There were still plush leaves on each tree, but something was awfully foreign about the environment.   
It was Boruto, who noticed that everyone was walking in the same direction.   
  
The moment they realised it was true, it was like they'd been spirited away. Sarada closed her eyes, listening to the bells and whispers. The light in her chest lead in the same direction as everyone was headed.   
"Let's stay in it." She whispered, though she didn't sound too sure of this herself. Boruto broke the tension and worry by pointing out various things.   
"The houses look like they've recovered nicely. In fact, they look new but like, old fashioned at the same time."   
"It's nice." Mitsuki hummed.   
  
Sarada agreed, because the light browns and golds of the wood and autumn leaves reflected the sunset beautifully.   
  
"I don't like it." Kawaki said sourly, not afraid to break the mood.   
"Everyone keeps staring at us. I don't know what's so wrong."   
  
Immediately after talking though, he did.  
Everyone around them had black hair. Here they were, blond, ice blue, multi-tonal and well, Sarada fit in but she was the only one. No one had piercings, no one had bright clothes and literally every single person had the same intimidatingly attractive aura to their-  
  
"Ah."   
It seemed they all realised at once.   
"We're stupid."   
"It should've been clear."   
"We're in the Uchiha compound." Mitsuki said, with that eerie knowledge he always had.   
  
Literally everyone had a symbol on their back. Somehow, they'd been so stressed recovering from the last event that they hadn't noticed.   
Sarada was filled with deja vu. Now that they'd said it, it was a little less mysterious. It's tone shifted from cautious, to warm and friendly.   
  
"They can tell we're outsiders because our clothes."   
"I guess nobody stopped us 'cause Sarada's with us." Kawaki said.   
Once again, it was Boruto who somehow noticed the obvious things they didn't.   
"Does anyone else feel shorter?"   
  
Sure enough, they had all shrunk to the height of kids.   
Thirteen or fourteen.  
That was a bit strange.   
  
They didn't have time to let it sink in, as they had followed the crowd to the open doors of a large shrine. Up marble stairs and under pillars, they stood among wind chimes and bells, with an old woman in a kimono smiling brightly at them.   
Her face was so wrinkled, her eyes barely parted. Even still she saw them well with a wise grin.   
  
"Ah, visitors, bless you for bringing them with you child." She said to Sarada.  
  
Sarada had never seen an Uchiha with white hair. Though, it was from age. It made her chest warm and she nodded her head, pressured to keep walking in by the crowds behind her.  
She didn't expect the woman to whisper to her so the other's couldn't hear. The voice made her skin prick.   
  
_"Get rid of them before it's time."_   
  
Her tone was still happy, but no amount of kindness could soften those ominous words.   
Sarada turned back her head to ask more questions, but the woman was already crowds behind them, busy welcoming other Uchiha guests. She didn't even acknowledge Sarada's attempts. Like a true ninja, her whisper hadn't even been seen.   
Now she had a bad feeling, grabbing onto Mitsuki's wrist so they didn't split up. His skin was cold and he flinched, looking at her with surprise.   
  
"That woman just told me to get rid of you. I don't think we should be here."   
Mitsuki's arm extended to grab Kawaki and Boruto.   
  
"Is there danger?" He asked, always quick to obey and get things done. Their two teammates turned back to them, staring with caution waiting for more words.   
Sarada checked her gut feeling and inhaled the sweet scent of sunlight and incense.   
  
"...No. I don't think so. My instinct is telling me to stay here."   
  
Mitsuki understood and decided for the rest of the group.   
"We'll stay by the edge. If we need to make a quick exit we will."   
  
So they did, going right to the back and pressing against the door as row after row filled up with clans members. They all were dark shades of navy, violet, grey and black. A few women had lilac clips and ribbons on their neck and hair.   
  
Sarada was the only one in vibrant red.   
  
It made her cheeks flush, painfully aware of how much they stood out. She really didn't know a lot of her clan's culture.   
Seeing them now, they were more like a cult than a clan. There were way, way more of them than she'd thought. Possible a hundred or two in one room. Clans couldn't be that big. Even the Hyuga clan had around thirty members, and that was at family gatherings.  
  
She'd always thought red to be a very Uchiha colour but now that she thought of it, like these crowds, papa always wore black.   
It was her mama who brought her red dresses.   
With a gulp of her throat, the room fell quiet.   
  
It was sudden, as if they were all linked to an invisible trigger. Then a bell started to chime rhythmically, the doors slammed, leaving them in a deep, amber candle lit glow and the voices of old Uchiha's started to chant and sing.   
  
Their voices, were deep, harmonious and as smooth as honey.   
  
Oh.   
  
This wasn't frightening at all.   
It was a shrine. The people around her were praying, thanking their ancestors and lighting candles for lost ones.  
The voices of the room melted together as they repeated chants, sounding like a chorus of low, caring relatives. Loved ones. Her eye lids started to feel heavy. The air started to feel warm, with sunlight streaming in from the few gaps in the windows.   
  
It was holy and precious, that was all. The old woman at the door had been trying to preserve her dear clan's sanctity.  
  
When the singing stopped, they went up to the shrine in small groups and put their hands together in prayer, bowing, lighting a candle and staring at the long list of names.   
Uchiha names. They resembled the most hypnotically beautiful worlds out there. Japanese words for imagery like thunderstorms, raining glass, whirlpools of fire and the dots on butterfly wings.   
Staring at the list of fallen Uchiha, Sarada briefly wondered, where all these Uchiha had gone.   
  
Why was it, that in her time, she had no Uchiha at all?   
  
She was broken from her trance by nothing but Kawaki's hiss as he fell on his bad ankle.   
She hadn't failed to notice how he'd gotten worse. How time hadn't healed him the way it would in their world. Going to his side, she was met by a priestess of the shrine, who aided her in leading him to the a seat in the back corner.   
  
"Thank you," Sarada bowed but the priestess was gone after only a sweet smile.   
  
Her and Kawaki were alone.   
  
"So," Kawaki whispered, to break the tension. There was still a cloudiness to the air that made them feel as if they were part of a dream. It made Kawaki, admittedly wish he were an Uchiha. With unity, numbers, grace, beauty and strength like this, the Uchiha were of great pride. They were the opposite of him, who had grown up lonely, fragile and scared.   
"Run into that flirtatious cousin of yours yet?"   
  
Sarada rolled her eyes and glared into his eyes.   
"Stop saying it like that." She brought her hand to her mouth and whispered, "If the others hear you say that I don't know what they'd think."   
An old auntie had already called her pretty and asked if she was interested in wedding his son.   
  
Sarada figured the Uchiha clan was so huge, they could marry each other and it wouldn't be weird.   
  
"Why does he get a chair?" Boruto asked, coming over and shoving Kawaki so he was almost half on his lap. Kawaki looked offended, pushing back with his hips and the two started to make a lot of noise.   
"Stop it!" Sarada whisper yelled, but it was too late.   
The music and prayers had once again, hushed to a stop.   
  
A stern looking man came out and stepped onto the second of the stage. Sarada winced. All of their eyes went small as they feared he would scold them. But he didn't even pass them a glance.   
"My fellow Uchiha clans brothers and sisters..."   
He started, and led onto a long, engrossing speech.   
  
When the man spoke, Sarada's eyes throbbed. It was him. She realised. Her mangekyou had lead her to _him_.  
  
Dressed with more colour and detail then the rest, it was clear that he was an important figure.   
With the way everyone listened, heads up in utmost silent, it was clear he was their leader. Her eyes scanned around the room, and Sarada realised that this was the part the woman had mentioned.   
But she wanted to be here.   
  
She wanted to hear.  
  
She was almost certain that this speech, was the reason they'd been brought here. Maybe she should send them out to wait out of respect?. She was about to convey this message, when heavy curtains pulled shut over the tiniest gaps of light, and all candles went dead apart from those behind the man.   
  
They couldn't leave now. Not without making a scene and letting in light.   
  
With reluctance, she settled back down, cross legged on the clean wooden floor. She listened, vanishing into the dark crowd, so all her focus fell on that man.   
He used big words, tripping her up at times with a vocabulary that was long outdated by her time, and she really had to focus. Kawaki and Boruto zoned out, Mitsuki stared unreadably, listening in.   
Whilst most of it was indiscernible, everyone else seemed to understand. He was reciting an ancient passage way that was familiar to all but herself. Call it, a lesson in Uchiha culture and history.   
She was thrilled, having never experienced anything like this before.   
  
The others were honestly just glad they could rest. They fell slack, lulled by his voice and the aura of peace. To get away from the ruins and weight of disaster on their shoulders.   
Kawaki felt soothed by the Uchiha enough to fall asleep. Boruto was in a daydream, Mitsuki, listening intently.   
  
He said many things Sarada had never heard. The Uchiha were the creators of fire style, the first to tame this element. She didn't know if she believed this, but when he said they invented Genjutsu, she did. An Uchiha's wife had learned to imitate him without eyes. She had passed it to her siblings, and then their cousins and so it had spread.   
She was intrigued to learn that the Uchiha had made the village. Their allegiance with the Senju created it.  
  
It was a young Uchiha, who held a leaf up to the sky and decided he wanted to create a land of peace, where children could play without fear of war and death.   
Sarada's eyes sparked with pride and amazement. She'd never felled more thrilled to be an Uchiha, until now.   
  
"Then, and I'm aware that more and more of you are growing to notice this, why is it that an Uchiha has never taken the position, as leader of the leaf?"   
  
His tone was biting, turning down the mood of the room like a dial, the clan members in the audience even giving tuts. Sarada didn't know why she felt dread. He was defending the fourth, saying that Minato Namikaze was a great man.  
  
But Sarada could sense the audience's displeasure with this, and Boruto's brows pinched downwards.  
The tone was becoming less and less soothing. The voice growing to becon of volume and strength.   
  
"They don't know that the very will of fire originates from the Uchiha soul. And it is the Uchiha that have the power to ignite."   
  
It was a snap so loud it silenced the room. Candles roared into gleaming pillars of fire, that burned into the audience as their applause rained loud and heavy into the streaks of flame..   
The speech ended but Sarda felt no gain.  
  
She felt confused, and Boruto upset and bitter.  
  
The curtains lifted up and the sunlight returned. It was now a hot night, with the sky a mix of red and blue.   
Soon the room cleared out, revealing how massive the shrine was. In the aftermath, social groups of old women, children and friends formed small circles in various corners to talk or play. 

* * *

_Before he left, the clan leader locked eyes with his son, jerking his head in the direction of the strange group he saw huddled in the corner. The boy nodded. His father trusted him enough, to leave._

* * *

There was no better place to talk than here. The future smelled of darkness and ash. The past their lingered in was soft as the sunset on their backs. The sound of elders gently sweeping and hushed whispered created a net of comfort in the room.   
  
"What was that about?" Boruto asked, leaning into the circle they'd made.   
Sarada opened her mouth, then exhaled nothing but a wordless sigh. Kawaki was still barely awake. His skin was pale, tired and in need of rest.   
  
"It seems the Uchiha aren't too happy with their position in the leaf." She answered, as blasely as she could.   
  
Boruto scoffed, "That's a light way of putting it. I'm sorry to say this Sarada but your clan scare me."   
  
She didn't like the way it was directed at her. Yes it was her clan, but she knew nothing. Honestly, she was just as afraid as he was.   
As much as she was one of them, she was not.   
  
"That's the second time an Uchiha has freaked us out today." Kawaki noted and Sarada couldn't object.   
Why were they like this?   
  
"Okay, so we all wear all black. So we're all unfriendly well-spoken and poetic and intimidatingly arrogant. But was that ceremony not also comforting?"   
  
The elderly women laughed at their sides, sitting side by side and knitting. The dark haired children were running around playing ninja like normal kids. The shrine boy was hanging out by their side, tying bows in the curtains and cleaning out the incense trays.   
  
"Maybe you should be afraid, we are inventors of genjutsu and fire style after all." She said lightheartedly in a jokingly arrogant voice to clear the tension. Saying out loud, she felt like her trance had broken, and she wasn't sure she believed their stories after all.   
  
The boys sighed.   
  
"Perhaps we should look over all our clues."   
"He's right." Kawaki agreed with Mitsuki.   
  
Sarada confessed that all had an Uchiha in common and why she thought this linked to the clues.   
"Are you sure it's not just following your heart? Maybe what you want to know more of is your clan, subconsciously not to save uncle sa..." He trailed off without saying the name.   
Sarada considered this, she really hoped it wasn't true.   
  
"That doesn't explain why it took us to the nine tails attack."   
  
The room went quiet all at once. Everyone in the room had heard that, as if saying it was taboo.   
  
Sarada winced, rushing into a fake conversation until people started to talk again. Only then did they relax.   
"What about the sharingan I saw in Kurama's eye?"   
  
Sarada had a hard time believing it, but wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.   
"That would make sense," Sarada said, "It means Kurama could have been under a genjutsu."   
"Then maybe the user was that guy we felt?"  
  
The air went tight with fear. They were three of the strongest in their generation, and yet, they didn't want to fight this man. Maybe it was fear of his strength, or the unknown, or the weight of making another enemy when they had yet to defeat their own.   
  
"So, if that was a genjutsu then why was that a hint? Do you think... all this really is a genjutsu?"   
"But we tested it before." Kawaki said with a frown, "Boruto and Mitsuki said we disappeared."   
  
"I know but we saw that mangekyou user try to pull me away. What if, my mangekyou," She leaned in to whisper the word extra quietly, "teleports us away but then places us under a genjutsu anyway?"   
  
Mitsuki's opinion was what she wanted the most. Out of all of them, he knew the most about sharingan and its awful complications. This was messing with her head.   
  
"That would be more consistent with the way genjutsu works. It would mean you're manipulating our chakras, as a castor of the genjutsu. It would explain why we can interact with our surroundings the way they are now."   
"So how do we test this?" Boruto bit his lip, head scrambling to keep up.   
Mitsuki narrowed his eyes in thought, "One of us would have to try and get out. Just one, to see where we go."  
  
When their eyes met in the centre, they sighed because of how difficult and unlikely that sounded.   
"A true genjutsu can never be escaped."   
  
The voice came from behind them, shocking them until they saw the disarming person it came from. It was the shrine boy. No older then ten, in loose, dark grey clothing, now tiptoeing up to tie a belled thread around the heavy curtain at their side.   
  
He tied a bow, still facing away as he answered their question.   
All four panicked, for fear of what he'd overheard. But the boy paid them no mind.   
  
"I'm sure you'll forgive my eavesdropping. Genjutsu is a topic of interest to me." He said calmly, finishing his work leisurely. "I can't help but overhear what I'm intrigued by. Perhaps I can be of help?"  
  
Boruto tried not to scoff, because for someone so young, he really did talk big. More eloquently than anyone he'd heard, anyway. Sarada faced the Uchiha boy with interest. As he turned back to them, there was something familiar about him.   
Her head tilted, taking in the typical, Uchiha features.   
Perhaps, she was finally learning to identify her own clan.   
  
"That would be great but we wouldn't want to disturb your work," she offered politely.   
  
He shook his head. "It's really no problem. I've been studying genjutsu lately. The subject truly fascinates me."   
  
He sat down, cross legged and smaller then them all. Yet somehow, he exuded the aura of a teacher, ready to educate students.   
Mitsuki glanced at Sarada for permission before he spoke. She nodded, trusting him not to expose their secrets.   
  
"If one is in a sharingan genjutsu, how likely are they to escape?"   
  
He answered slowly and carefully, without needing much time for thought.   
"Its range is proportionate to the user. An average Uchiha will falter at the limits of their chakra. The greatest of our clan can cast a genjutsu for an entire life."   
  
His tone sent shivers down their spines. He was a great talker, not just for his age but any. Kawaki was entranced. Not just by his knowledge, but gentleness. Boruto thought it was funny the kid thought he was so smart.   
He was probably just good at bluffing, that was all.   
  
"Their lifetime, or their victim's?" Kawaki wondered.   
  
"The victims." He blinked, eyes big and black. "There are forms of genjutsu that are endless, that don't fade even after the castor's death."   
  
The boy took on a sweet, gentle smile as he said, "there is a theory our reality is nothing but a genjutsu itself, and that God is none other than an Uchiha ancestor placing us all in a spell."   
He glanced at the boys, each in their eyes as he went off on a calm but excited tangent.   
  
"Death in the battlefield is often welcomed, as an opportunity to break the Genjutsu of God and escape into the next reality. In some theories, the more dimensions a genjutsu controls, the more advanced. A low level would distort sight alone. A higher genjutsu could create sound, taste, smell, equilibrium, thought, placement and even time."   
  
That confirmed it.   
It confirmed to Boruto that this kid was was off his head.   
To Mitsuki, it confirmed that Uchiha children were as amazing as Orochimaru had said.   
To Kawaki, that Sarada Uchiha might be able to save them.   
  
To Sarada, the nine tails could surely be controlled by a genjutsu, meaning an Uchiha had attacked the leaf. _An Uchiha had killed Boruto's grandparents._  
  
That was the clue.   
This boy might be their best source of information yet.   
  
"What about the mangekyou?" She dared ask in a fit of thirst for information. She suddenly felt closer to her father than she had in weeks, closer than she'd even been when she'd looked down at the baby in his brother's arms. She was leaning forward towards the boy with wide, hopeful eyes.   
  
Papa's mangekyou had always haunted her.   
  
His lips never told her the truth. The library prevented her from reading the books, mocking her as it was her own damned clan. After years of searching and finding nothing, someone who could tell her was right before her eyes.   
  
Hearing this word, the boys eyes widened for only a half of a second, before his face went back to stoicism. He played coy, not giving away that these strangers were suddenly way more intriguing to him than he'd hoped.   
  
"That's a matter of great taboo, not to be spoken in the shrine."   
He blinked, big eyes looking up at her, Sarada blinked right back.   
  
Actually, facing one another, Boruto realised they looked quite alike. Both with long, straight black hair and tilted eyes, with the same fan like lashes spraying out the bottom and top.   
"Huh..." Boruto thought, staring at Sarada closer.   
  
Then, the corner of the boy's mouth smiled. It was almost nonexistent, it was so small. As if something had clicked in his head.   
"You wish to break from a genjutsu, do you not?"   
  
Sarada nodded her head, completely trusting this man for some reason she couldn't place. The white light in her chest was brightest here. It was certain that her clue for this world, was this boy.   
"Yes." She mouthed.   
  
Her three companions were alarmed by every mystical word from the boy's mouth.   
"Then, I'll grant you it as my favour to you."  
  
In a strange, sickening twist, everything morphed again, and Sarada could have sworn she was staring at an adult, not a child. As if she had stared into a jolt in time.   
The last thing she remembered was staring into his black, mirror like eyes. Her own went red in reaction with a gasp, reaching up to touch her own face, her vision was suddenly red and spinning.   
The sound of blades scraping together washed over them, and suddenly, without her moving, everything was gone.   
  
The light was gone, the smokey air and sunlit warmth was all gone.   
  
Her teammates could barely be seen in the heavy darkness and the awful sinking darkness of home slammed into her from the ground. 

They were back in the present. Back far away from their best clue.   
"No, no, no....!" Sarada groaned, sinking her fingers into her hair in irritation. 

"Did he just break out of your genjutsu!?" Boruto said, too loudly in the uncomfortable, unsafe dark. Mitsuki slapped a hand over his mouth, just as uncomfortable and scared as him. 

"That doesn't make any sense..." The snake boy whispered, eyes on the ground.   
  
"For him to have broken us out, he'd have to have a mangekyou himself. One stronger than even Sarada's. He couldn't. That doesn't make sense unless..." 

Perhaps he'd spoken his thoughts out loud. Sarada grabbed Mitsuki with her eyes and she could almost stare into his soul.   
  
"Unless?" She whispered, before her expression went firm. "What do you know that we don't?"   
  
Ah.   
  
He'd definitely messed up. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope people are still reading this, it's largely Uchiha focused for now but it will get back to other events soon. 
> 
> Please leave a comment if you liked it or have any more suggestions x


	5. River Smile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarada finally learns who can help them figure out her powers.  
> Now, all she has to do is find them.

It was the present. 

That wasn't good, as it meant Kawaki was a ticking time bomb at their side. It was clear they all needed to rest but the present was the last place they could do so. Sarada's mangekyou was such a powerful pulling force, she often had no say in where it took them. But she was getting better. She just needed somewhere to aim.   
Her and her teammates sat on burned gravel, rubble and sticks. They were at the edge of the forest, but barely any light reached them from the murky skies.   
  
"If I tell you I learned it from my parent, would you believe me?" 

"Yes," she nodded, because as haunting as Mitsuki's cold eyes were, he was a friend she could trust. "Lord Orochimaru has more information than all of us combined. We should go to him - I'm grateful we still have anyone like that left."   
  
Boruto shook his head, "Keep in mind we have a time limit. I know his labs stretch all the way from the land of fire to the wave. If we're gonna find him we need to do it qui-"  
"Actually he's right here, "Mitsuki blinked, over the sound of Boruto and Kawaki still panting from the waves of their travel.  
  
"He is!?"   
  
"I believe he came as soon as he heard, to aid the village. Lady fifth requested his help."  
Sarada didn't know why, but her heart warmed with relief. That was good. They may both be old, but they needed all the help they could get. And this meant her mama was not alone.   
  
"Whatever we do, let's be quick," Boruto reminded them, posture strong but eyes tired.   
  
Sarada nodded, jumping up only to kneel back down and wince, "We can't take Kawaki into the hideout."   
"But we can't leave him here." The blond interjected. 

"So leave me." Kawaki spoke through a clenched jaw. "I don't want you near if that thing comes out anyway."   
  
"Nonesense. Boruto, you stay here so you can help him if things get-"  
  
"I don't want Boruto getting hurt. _Leave."  
_  
They all went silent at that tone of his voice Boruto's eyes were wide, as Kawaki leaned his head against a broken stump of tree. His ankle was still sore, his breath heavy. The longer they stayed here and argued, the more time was pushing into their sides.   
  
"We'll be quick." Sarada decided, grabbing onto Mitsuki and Boruto's hands and pulling them up. They were only a few feet away when Sarada stopped and Boruto looked her way.   
"You'll stay close enough to keep an eye on him, right?"   
  
"I'm already one step ahead of you." Boruto confirmed, giving a nod before disappearing off to a safe point he could keep watch at. With that, Sarada and Mitsuki leapt away. 

* * *

Sakura was still out cold.  
  
Sarada wanted to keep going, but she couldn't resist checking the last parent she had left was okay. Her pink hair looked pale. Her skin, white and tired. She wasn't surprised. Barely ten minutes had passed in real time. Though, Sarada felt she hadn't heard her mama's voice in _days_. 

* * *

When they reached Orochimaru's camp, Auntie Karin jumped on Sarada, squeezing her into a tight, aching hug.   
Just that simple touch melted the teen's exterior away, reminding her of how it felt to be a scared child.   
She didn't want that reminder. She didn't want to have to face her emotions yet, when so little had been achieved.   
  
"You're strong. My god look at you, you are so strong." Karin said, pulling away to look down at Sarada's determined eyes with pride.   
They didn't reunite for long. Orochimaru was there, doing something strange as he always was. He had a glowing tube of liquid behind him, and had various others in his hands. If the village said he was helping, Sarada could only hope and trust that they were right.   
  
"My parent," Mitsuki addressed, "Sarada Uchiha wishes to know about the mangekyou Sharingan."   
Orochimaru didn't face her. His eyes were downcast and serene, intently focused, though his voice was happy to focus on her.   
"Ah, where do I begin? There is so much to say."   
  
He hadn't expected an answer but she gave one anyway, voice rushed and filled with desperation but strong.   
"Can a mangekyou user break another's genjutsu? Can a mangekyou distort real time or is it a psychologically induced illusion? Can a mangekyou play with space and cause teleportation, or is that an illusion created too?"   
  
Orochimaru stopped his work and gave Mitsuki a look. The two snakes shared a wordless lock of eyes, before he returned to his work and started to speak.   
  
"So you've been studying, have you? I'll answer in order. Yes, it's true that capable Uchiha can penetrate the impenetrable doujutsu of other Uchiha, if their genjutsu is strong enough. Secondly, no. I can't say I've heard anything involving time control, but given the mysteries of that clan, I wouldn't write it out as impossible."  
His tongue flicked out almost out of his control but they all, including himself chose to ignore it.   
  
"And thirdly, yes. The mangekyou and rinnegan combo has been known to open up the boundaries of space, just like what your father Sasssuke did."   
Golden eyes held her gaze.   
"Your knowledge of them is deeper than I'd thought. I almost feel like you know more than me."   
Mitsuki was quick to cut in.   
  
"Was there ever a stronger Mangekyou user than Sasuke? If so what time period did they live in and where?"   
  
Orochimaru considered this, intrigue growing like a sweet taste on the tip of his tongue. He was annoyed and hurt to hear that his Sasuke was gone. But it wasn't like he couldn't grow another. Though, it was likely to be a souless body with only physical resemblance. He dropped his potions together, looking satisfied at the result.   
  
" _Stronger?_ Strength is not measured in such a linear way. Each ability has a separate use. To quote someone I once knew, a weapon is only as strong as its wielder. I'm sure you've heard of Madara Uchiha, for example?"   
  
It was only recently that she had, but Sarada was proud to be able to nod.   
"He was the most powerful of shinobi, and yet his sharingan was not quite as unique as others. Hmm. Are you aware of Shisui Uchiha?"   
Sarada shook her head, reciting the name in her head to burn it into memory.   
  
"Shisui's was certainly strong. Then again there is Itachi ahh the sharpest mind I've ever had the pleasure of seeing. Itachi was almost more God than human at times."  
  
 _"Itachi,_ who is that?"   
Orochimaru was genuinely surprised and a little hurt that Sarada didn't know.   
Poor Sasuke. Were his wounds still too sore to even tell his child?   
  
"My dear Sarada, Itachi Uchiha is the name of your direct uncle. Perhaps, one of the closest Uchiha to your blood. Sasuke's own brother..." He trailed off, sending her a cold smile. "A brother your father loved and adored for all his life."   
  
For some reason, his words made her shiver deeply under her skin. But a powerful warmth flooded Sarada, even in the cold bluish lights of the deep, cavern lab. The boy who'd held baby Sasuke in his arms had been Itachi. She had seen Itachi!   
  
"..then again Fugaku's could supposedly end lives with a blink, and there is Tobi, who more or less invented the Sharingan and rinnegan combination Sasuke later perfected..."   
She was barely listening to his rambles.   
  
The boy's face had slotted perfectly in her mind and then it had clicked. It was him. The shrine boy was that very same child, but older. He was Itachi. Her eyes locked to Mitsuki and she could tell he'd figured it out too.   
  
"There's so much more I could tell you. I never did get to analyse his corpse but Kakashi would know quite a bi-"  
"So Itachi was the strongest?"   
Not at all offended by her interruption, far used to Sasuke's similarly bossy antics, Orochimaru moved on.   
  
"Strongest doujutsu would likely fall to Shisui. However, the strongest mind, the sharpest wit, the most powerful soul... I must admit Itachi had them all."   
  
Sarada felt satisfaction fall strongly into her chest. She finally felt that they'd achieved _something._ They actually had somewhere to go, someone who might help them out!  
  
"Thank you-" Her and Mitsuki were already half out the door, when she skidded to a halt and peered back at the strange being.   
"Oh! One more thing, if there was a time when the leaf was at its most safe, when would you say it was?"   
  
At the question, Orochimaru gave a cunning, slightly villainous chuckle.   
"I'd say before the very end of the third's life. Though I was travelling away from the leaf I've heard there was a blissful golden age."   
  
"Thanks!"  
  
Orochimaru didn't quite know what they were up to but based on his own theories and ideas, he was happy to help. 

* * *

When their eyes opened, they were in another quiet world.   
  
Sunlight slapped down on them and birds were singing so loudly and cheerily, it was a rush of everything pleasant and sweet.   
  
"I'll check the time and make sure we're in the right place." Boruto said, hopping up a roof, spinning his heel and climbing up the many twists and wiggles of the old style of the hidden leaf. He stopped at the very top at last, to get a look at the third and fourth's stone faces. They were definitely rushing now. It felt like time had become a constraint, even though it was under their control. He dived backwards.   
  
  
"Excuse me!" He said, popping down before a random villager, having to strain his neck just to look up at them. He realised why his movements had been so slow. They were small again, part of their disguise, which Sarada's mangekyou seemed to do of its own will.   
  
The villager jumped, eyeing him up in surprise.   
  
"Would you mind telling me what the full name of the current Hokage is?"   
  
"Oh uhh... Lord third? Hiruzen Sarutobi, everyone knows that."   
  
"Yes!" Boruto pumped his fist with glee, before turning back to the confused person with wide, bright eyes. "And uh, how old was the guy again?"   
"He's sixty three this year-"  
  
Boruto's sing of "Thank youuu" rained down as he returned into the trees. The villager eyed him strangely, before shrugging it off as another weird kiddy game. His face popped out of the bushes, smile wide and innocent with his younger face.   
  
"We're in the third's second run as Hokage alright." He reported to his team. "He's sixty-three so it's been a few years since the fourth's death but, I think we're a little early. He died when he was like sixty-nine I think."   
  
"Mitsuki, can you tell us about this year?" Sarada asked.   
  
"It's a year of peace." The snake boy confirmed, looking into his memory hard. "No wars between the leaf... A few tensions with the Mist and Grass but no attacks on the village of serious notability. It sounds like a fine year to set up camp and rest."  
  
Sarada nodded and her fingers slipped a little before she caught her balance. Her head really was beginning to pound.   
"Hey," Boruto was quick to catch her but she shrugged him off. She always tried to be so strong.   
  
"We need sleep. I don't know about you all but I..."  
  
"Sarada!? SARADA!"  
  
For some reason, his voice sounded like it was getting smaller and smaller.   
It was the last thing she heard before she was spiralling down. She supposed, it was the relief that they were finally out of immediate danger, that forced her body into such a sudden shut down.   
The next thing she knew, everything was black. 

* * *

She dreamed of Itachi.   
Not the powerful figure she imagined when Orochimaru had said his name.   
She imagined the little boy, laughing, lifting her father onto his hip when they were both so small. At one point, in the whir of the dream she became the baby, and then she became a flower, sat on the side of little Sasuke's ear.   
In the end, her mind replayed the nauseating feeling of Itachi's doujutsu warping them out. It mingled, in the confusing flurry of dreams with how the masked man had tried to tug her away.   
She awoke silently, lifting open her eyes.   
  
All was quiet. The room was dark, a distinct smell of washed bed sheets and tatami soft in the air.   
Sarada's eyelashes fluttered shut, reflecting on her dream and brushing it off as nothing of value. She was clearly deeply affected by this all. By meeting her ancestors and realising she knew nothing about them. She'd never felt further from her own bloodline and father, than now.   
Sarada silently sighed and pushed herself up, glancing around. Kawaki was asleep on the floor next to her, breath heavy but face relaxed. His knees were bent, sheets pulled apart in a tangle around his two legs, and Boruto's arm. Boruto's arm was tangle up with it, stretching out of his own mat and onto Kawaki's in a careless, adorable way.   
  
Adorable..?   
  
They were both boys - smaller than the last time they'd shrunk. They looked about seven or eight. Sarada gasped slightly, looking down at her own tiny hands, squeezing them, relieved that she maintained the same control over her chakra the older her had.   
A nostalgic warmth lifted the ends of her lips. She turned to Mitsuki, who was curled up in a corner by the window, keeping watch.   
He blinked ahead, barely acknowledging her as she stood by his side.   
  
"You didn't have to stay up. We're safe." She whispered, voice just under what the other's would hear.   
  
"It didn't feel right."  
  
"Did you sleep?"   
He paused, gold eyes flicking to follow the morning birds as they spun frenetically and cheerfully from sky wire to wire.  
"Boruto took the first shift. I rested then."   
"Mitsukiiii-"   
  
Sarada tried to grab him and pull him out of his alert.   
He slithered away from her her grip on his clothes and circled round in one motion so he was back exactly where he started.   
"No, I've gone without sleep for far longer before."   
"That doesn't mean you shouldn't rest when you need it."   
  
"I'm fine." He looked into her eyes, and his voice was all soft in the quiet morning hum. "Out of everyone here, I've been through the least emotional turmoil. There is no convincing me, I appreciated the time to think."   
Sarada let her lips lift into a smile.   
  
"Okay, we get it. You're an amazing shinobi." She rolled her eyes in joke annoyance, then tiptoed up and leaned out to the window, not quite adjusted to her newfound shortness.   
"Where are we anyway? I know when but..."   
  
"We had enough to afford a hotel. It turns out, money was of more value back now than in our time. We can buy a lot more for a lot less. Though, the owner looked suspicious since we're so young."   
  
"It's a good thing our clothes look foreign then."  
  
"Yes. That reminds me, the owner doesn't know you're here."  
"What?" She raised a brow, voice low.   
  
"We snuck you in. Kawaki thought we'd spare ourselves the side looks of being... three boys booking a hotel room with an unconscious girl."   
  
Sarada couldn't help herself. She hid her hand in her head and laughed. Any other day, it wouldn't be as funny. But with papa and the seventh's death, with watching the fourth die, and the Uchiha scaring her hard enough to warp her forwards in time, the mental image was hilarious.   
Mitsuki cracked one of his silent side smiles as she tried to contain her cackles.   
  
Eventually, Boruto awoke with a shift and a warmth in his heart at awaking to that sound. Kawaki had already been awake for a while, he just hadn't wanted to open his eyes.   
  
"Ah, well I'm glad at least one of you had some sense." 

* * *

Being safe was weird.  
  
They cleared out the hotel and moved on quickly. It had been an idea at first, to pretend they were foreign visitors, like when visitors from the Mist and Sand walked around in the present. But glancing about, it was clear that they stuck out awfully, receiving suspicious, hateful looks and nervous scurries away, even though they were only kids.   
  
They realised foreign tourism was not a thing.   
Not so much as non-existent, but far more limited than what they were used to. Mitsuki confirmed later with shame at not realising sooner, that until fairly recently, only spies and the extremely wealthy travelled out of their country. Tourists to the leaf came from the land of fire, no further; not even the wind.   
  
They hurriedly purchased some cheap, modern clothing from the time.  
  
Boruto hated all of it. There were no tracksuits and no familiar brands. The fabrics weren't as scientific and sleek, and there was a huge lack of pink and black.   
A quick slap on the back of the head from Mitsuki got him to quiet his complaints. He settled for white shorts and an ugly blue top.   
  
Once they looked the part, they settled down in a cafe, all their old clothes mushed into one bag. Before them on the plain wooden cafe were a large assortment of sweet and savoury snacks. It wasn't a lot by their standards, but they devoured it, as if they hadn't eaten in weeks.   
  
"This is so good -" Boruto spoke with his chubby cheeks full. "If I knew I could buy this much with only a few coins, I'd have travelled back in time years ago."  
  
The murmur of the restaurant created a loud comfort. A few adults noticed their little meeting and chuckled because they must have looked fairly cute. Mitsuki, knowing as much as he did provided an answer. 

"The economy was simply different. In the seventh's time, we spend way too much as a society. I'm sure you've noticed we're the youngest kids here?"  
  
Kawaki looked around. It was true. The few kids there were weren't in groups of other children, but clinging to parents or sibling's sides.   
  
"Children having money is also something from our present. In the seventh's leaf, it's safer. Children can dine and play as friends from as young as five without their parents. In this time, most children would be denied entry, and they'd stick to playing in the parks or streets."   
  
"Huh," Boruto said, leaning back and closing his eyes. "Guess I always took that kind of stuff for granted."   
Silence settled, the soothing sounds of pseudo peace resting down on them. Though, it distinctly wasn't as pure as the childhood from where they were from. Before Naruto changed it, the world had been a hard place.   
  
"We should talk." Sarada eventually decided to say, hating to end their rest but not wanted to linger here at the same time.   
"Yeah, we've got a lot to sort though." Boruto answered, tilting his head and frowning at the floor.   
  
"My feet can't reach the floor," he said absentmindedly, kicking them brightly with a chuckle. For him, being a child again was something to chuckle at. He did have good memories of it.   
Kawaki on the other hand was slightly trembling.   
He didn't like childhood.   
He didn't like having less power than everyone that wanted him hurt.   
  
Boruto stirred his drink and the ice clashed, breaking him from his trance. He took a sip too.   
  
"If the power to change the future really lies in my mangekyou, then the person who can help us master it is... _Itachi Uchiha,"_ She whispered the name with a glance around. "If he was that smart all those years ago as a kid, he could really help us out now."   
  
"So we should look around for him? Even though we don't exactly know how he looks..." Boruto commented between sips.   
Sarada bit her lip.   
  
"I suggest we do not ask around. "Mitsuki said. "We do not want our aims too explicit to those around us."   
  
"That's smart," Kawaki agreed.  
  
"Maybe if we go back to where we landed, the mangekyou will send me another clue." Sarada said, touching her still sore eye. "It worked the other times, it led us to where we wanted."   
  
"It led us to that masked man. I'm not looking forward to crossing him again." Boruto scoffed into his iced tea, staring bitterly at the ground. He didn't want to jump to conclusions but, he knew evil when he felt it. He'd seen sharingan in Kurama's eye. He'd seen Kurama kill his grandpa and gran-  
  
"Do you feel something guiding you now?" Mitsuki inquired, voice soft and hand on Sarada's shoulder.   
  
Kawaki nudged him while Sarada was faced away. The blond realised his words had been insensitive. Sarada was just as worried about that guy as him. The difference was, he was a member of her clan. It wasn't that he thought the Uchiha were bad. He'd just been creeped out by every single Uchiha he'd ever met apart from Sasuke. And even Sasuke scared him at times.   
  
Sakura was ... Sakura wasn't even an Uchiha by birth.   
  
Sarada closed her mind to it all, and felt a gentle light hum in her chest.   
"Yes!" She answered, surprised staring straight ahead at the mindless chef, working under the sizzle of the kitchen in the background. If it weren't for Mitsuki, she wouldn't have noticed it at all, it was so faint.   
  
"This is good, I have a feeling this will lead us somewhere productive. Boruto and Mitsuki, can you gather some intel and try find out where _my uncle_ is? These are times of peace so it's not a bad idea to split up."   
  
"Yeah, you can trust us." Boruto said, and Mitsuki gave a single nod.   
  
"I still feel like we're in this mission to blind." Kawaki said with a frown and they all nodded their heads. A mission. That was a nice way of putting it, less foreign and with less as stake.   
  
"If you do run into my uncle," She whispered, catching all their eyes to confirm they knew she meant Itachi, "we'll find out something else. If he remembers us, then we'll know our actions here are real. We're effecting the real flow of time."   
  
A chill hit them, Boruto gulping dryly and Kawaki's mouth line hardening in stress.   
  
"If not, there's a chance he simply forgotten us but somehow, I doubt that. That would make this an illusion, and ugh...We'll deal with the issue of this all being an illusion only if it's confirmed."  
There were too many what ifs and deep questions they could ask, so none of them decided to waste any time.   
  
"Got it."   
  
"Kawaki, can you come with me?" 

* * *

They flew off, flickers in the air, on the tops of roofs and under beams until they were back to where they'd first entered this time at last. It looked like nothing, a patch of pavement that met grass.   
Sarada felt nothing, but that wasn't the only reason she was here. She followed the voice in her heart and started to tread over roof tops, following it like a map. She stopped after only a few minutes, staring across at Kawaki's cute face.   
  
She cracked a smile.   
  
She'd never seen him look so young and it was impossible not to smirk. His hair was all dark, soft and a little long and floppy over his ears. His soft cheeks grew quickly pink, misreading her look for the same haughtiness of when they'd first met.   
  
"Stop." He bit like a threat but his eyes were turned away. If he really wanted her to stop he would have punched her in the throat. Sarada was glad that his personality was still mature, despite how he looked.   
  
"How's your leg?"   
He gave his ankle a kick.   
"Strong. Which is a bad sign for all of us."   
  
Her mood plummeted.   
  
Turning on the roof to face him, the vast sky was open and freeing behind them. This version of the village was more wiggly and unrefined. It had more seemingly useless twists and dips, deceptive tunnels, curves, variations in the shapes of roofs and with dots of damage to the colourful bricks and tiles.   
It was a mix of rustic and new, but in an outdated sort of way. Like a huge playground, appropriate as a class of kids were giggling in the far distance below them as they spoke.  
  
"Do you feel like he's... pushing you? Like he's awake."   
  
"He's not conscious yet but... I'm having doubts about myself. How do I know that I'm not him? That we haven't somehow _merged_ so he can listen to us right now?"   
  
"Stressing won't help you fight him. Let's try not to worry," she tried to soothe, but that thought scared her too.   
  
Sarada hopped down and scanned over the other kids their age playing in the academy. Not one of the kids stood out to her as recognisable, their hair colours were blond, brown, black and blue in all shades.   
  
But no pink. She couldn't help look for her Mama. She'd be so young here, just seeing her might comfort Sarada, the way seeing baby Sasuke had felt. But that's not what they were here for.   
  
"If he did... do you think you'd be able to hold him in?"   
She knew she was asking a lot. She didn't know if being a vessel worked that way. The times Boruto had been possessed had always been so handy and helpful to them. It seemed he was too strong for the Otsutsuki to take over, but Kawaki had been a vessel for longer than him.   
  
"I really don't know.," he scoffed, "It's fucking annoying. I just want him dead."   
He kicked a rock and it raved out the edge of the roof, skidding a line until it bounced off a tile and fell to a slow sudden death, several of miles out from where he was.   
Sarada winced, glad he hadn't struck a pipe.   
  
Or worse, a kid.   
  
"Let me know if you're not feeling great. A long time ago, I heard my papa helped Uncle Jugou with his curse by using sharingan. Maybe I could... try and do the same with you?"   
It was a stupid idea and they both knew it was.   
  
Isshiki was a being beyond all human strength. If it came down to his visual prowess verse Sarada's, it was clear who would win.   
A bitter, urgent howl reverberated through her chest.   
  
"Yeah," He laughed like a scoff, "I'll let you know."   
  
"Kawaki... _there."_

* * *

They found nothing of Itachi. 

They found nothing of the Uchiha compound that had greeted them, the night of the nine tails attack.   
  
When they went to the shrine, it was empty and locked off for the day. Sarada figured the Uchiha's had moved, which wasn't a far stretch since they were all gone from the village by her time.   
For now, it was frustrating. No matter how far she walked, she found nothing. Nothing but the persistent beating drumming and throbbing in her chest, telling her that something-  
  
Something she could name, locate or define - was here.  
  
Now they were in a park, Sarada pouting and Kawaki wincing because he sucked at comforting friends. They stood together, on the top of a hilly slope of grass that led to a thick stream of river. They weren't alone. Kids of all ages hopped, sprinted and ran around together, laughing, kicking and making noise.   
The two outsiders stood together though, eyes ahead, breathing in the bittersweet sight.   
  
Kawaki felt the village had a softer touch in this time, with smaller buildings, he felt almost even more welcome than he did in the present.   
It was honestly the first time he'd been around such a large body of people without feeling any distress. 

Even when he'd first met Naruto, years ago he'd been on guard. Kawaki wasn't used to _care._ It took months for him to recognise the legitimacy of the sevenths care for him. But even knowing that Naruto would protect him, he was aware that everyone else in the village saw him as a cold, evil threat.  
  
In the past, he was unknown. He was free.   
Nobody cast Kawaki a second glance. His eyes closed but he didn't let his affections show, searching Sarada's face as the park around them grew quieter and quieter.  
  
"Sarada, I know you're thinking but...We've been standing here for hours," he said.   
It was true.  
They'd been here for so long, he wondered if she was frozen.   
  
She was still squinting at the empty river, a slight strain in her battered eyes, watching the quiet waves as if waiting, waiting for something to come.   
She knew this river.   
  
It was still there in the present. It had been there all her childhood and she was glad it hadn't changed.   
  
She had a memory of it, one she hadn't even known she'd had.   
Only now, standing here, did the memory jolt out of hiding from within the depths of her mind.   
Sasuke was holding her in his one good arm, his chest warm and the gentle, the familiar scent of his cloak covered all she knew. He'd been speaking in a tongue she was too young to know, but the sound of his voice was a velvet lullaby. Enough to soothe her to sleep.   
  
She had to have been about two years old. So young, it might be the earliest memory she had.   
  
Sasuke had walked out on the short pier, water around them and her in his arms. He'd smiled at her in his slight way, and she'd gripped and squeezed at the longer strands of his hair, invoking a sigh as he turned and walk back.   
Then out to the pier again.   
Then back.   
He was telling her a story, words she so wished her memory would decipher now and let her hear.   
Her eyes pinched with tears, staring out at the quiet, lonely river now.   
  
The figure of herself and her late papa in her mind, melted away like a vanishing cloud.   
  
"Sarada?" Kawaki was staring at her face, urgent worry strong in his voice.   
  
A kid zoomed by them with his arms out like he was flying, grass fluttering as the kid reunited with his siblings and they all laughed away.   
  
"Huh.... did I zone out?" The kunoichi shook her emotions off, realising that Kawaki was right. Nothing was changing, nothing happening at all. Her chest throbbed for her to stay, but her own heart and mind just wanted to leave.  
  
It was too sad.   
  
"YOU THINK I WANTED TO PLAY WITH YOU, FINE GO. All of you go. I don't need you to play."   
  
Both heads turned sharply at a voice so loud. It disrupting the peace, and they found themselves staring like all the others in the park at one kid, clearly in the midst of a fight.   
It didn't take more than a second to realise who he was - Naruto Uzumaki had barely changed. His blond hair was longer as a kid, and its triangles were bright and soft. His cheeks still had the same curious whiskers on them and his eyes were so blue, he looked almost exactly like Boruto.   
  
"BLEH! BLEH! BLEH! SCREW YOU ALL!" Naruto scowled a them, stomping his feet and poking out his tongue.   
He was throwing a tantrum so immature, Sarada forgot about his cruel fate, and she laughed. She laughed softly as the other parents quickly grabbed their kids and hurried away from Naruto, as if trying avoid upsetting him anymore.   
  
"No way.." Kawaki's voice was a low hiss. Sarada was just coming down from her amusement, when his tiny head turned to them too and he yelled.   
"OH you think that's funny huh!?"   
  
Before she could stop him, Kawaki was bolting ahead.   
  
Naruto did a double take, not used to being approached and quickly went all shy.   
  
"HEH!? Y-You wanna fight!"  
"Kawaki- no-" Sarada choked, rushing up to grab his side, missing because the limping male was suddenly fast.   
  
"C-Come on then!" The tiny Naruto gave a high, nervous yelp, fists up shyly, flushing hot at the attention - when Kawaki stopped at his side. Suddenly kawaki's eyes fell down like a puppy who had been kicked.   
The display of emotion in his face was intense enough, that the young Naruto only looked worried and confused.   
  
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for what I do... You really are the best person in the world and you deserve so much better-"   
  
Sarada grabbed Kawaki, tearing both boys from their focus with a violent shock. Her heart still hammered with adrenaline, pulling Kawaki back, turning her head so Naruto wouldn't hear.  
  
"Don't." She said, gritting her teeth. "We can't talk to him."   
  
But the boy heard her loud and clear, misinterpreting her words with a frown.   
  
"Tch. Can't talk to me, huh? I get it. You're just like them."   
  
Naruto's eyes were full of hurt as he pushed passed them, racing away with his head down. Sarada felt she'd been slapped by the aggression in Naruto's voice. _Why was he so mad? Did the toddler think she disliked him?  
  
_ "W-wait!" She called, wanting to say sorry. It was no use, he was already far gone.  
  
The Naruto she knew was so soft and ever loving. She knew he was a kid here, but it was still strange to see him full of quiet rage. Their heads followed him until he was a solitary speck of orange and gold in the setting pink sun.   
They definitely could have handled that better. Sarada wanted to follow him but it wasn't worth the risk.  
  
"Ah, I'm sorry for being rough... I know how that must have felt." She whispered to Kawaki but before he could respond, a bright tug hit here chest.   
Her eyes turned sharply, and there he was.   
  
Sasuke Uchiha was a living ghost, skin white as the moon and clothes, entirely black.   
He wasn't a baby anymore. He was up and walking now, with his head down, a slow heaviness to his light, tiny feet, like he didn't want to get forward and he didn't want to go home.   
  
Kawaki inhaled sharply, reaching out and holding onto her arm, as if she might run to Sasuke and repeat what they'd just gone through. But her chest was screaming so loudly. She could see several versions of the two boys before her, confusing her eyes. A past version, the steps they'd just taken. A future version, the frames of a sharingan showing their next moves.   
  
All the park was empty around them now, except for two boys.  
  
The sun was setting fast, the sky becoming quiet and dark. Naruto and Sasuke were about to walk up to each other. The two people that meant most to her in the world.   
The two Kawaki had killed, one to the left of them and one to the right, as if a tingling wire of fate was drawing them in.   
  
He looked like Itachi had.   
  
His hair was short and his outline blurry since he was quite far. She couldn't get a good look, but his aura felt so different it shocked her heart. He walked by them, without even paying them a glance, as if they couldn't be seen. Sarada's skin prickled with goose bumps when she saw where he was going.   
  
Sasuke stepped onto the pier.

It was the same way he'd walked, with her in his arms.  
  
She could almost see two of them now. One an adult ghost, one a child. Each footstep, blink and breath the same. And then, at the very end, he stopped.   
He sat, stared at the water. Looked into his own, empty eyes. 

Her chest thumped.  
  
She felt a powerful, protective fear quake through her gut, and she knew Sasuke was going to jump.   
That he would land in the river and he would get hurt, and drown her reality was left in the past as she leapt ahead to save him when-  
Naruto's foot snapped on the ground, Sasuke's head turning fast.   
  
Their eyes met.   
  
Sarada's mind shrieked, so violet and loud and clashing with the domestic calm of the scene before her eyes.   
  
Naruto winced as their eyes met. Sasuke frowned and glared, both of them silently resentful, alone in the setting sun, just daring the other to disrupt their peace.   
  
It was like how Boruto looked at Kawaki. How they both cared for each other deep down, but loved to pretend they didn't.   
Their gazes jumped away and it was quick, it was a meaningless short interaction to anyone else and Kawaki's lips parted, watching them both turn away.   
Naruto's sad eyes lifted in a smile, scurrying away with a little more life in his step.  
  
Kawaki chuckled quietly, turning to Sarada for her reaction, but she was gone.   
  
Her mind was gone, racing like a magnet was pulling her towards the sky.   
"Sa-" He didn't have to say anything more this time before she answered all his concern with fear of her own.   
"Something's falling from the sky."   
"What?"   
"Don't you see it? There's something coming in fast, towards the river-"  
  
She stood up and Kawaki stared but nothing was there. Nothing was in the river and Sarada was freaking out, not sure if she should sprint to it or away from it, because _how could he not see?_  
  
It had to a be an bomb or an attack, because in a blaze of fire, bright red burned everything before her eyes.   
She realised horrified what it was she'd seen. Naruto and Sasuke's corpses slammed into the river, mangled, bloody and dead in the eyes. Having fallen from nowhere in the sky, the magnet in her heard whirred in excruciating pain. 

Sarada screamed, but no sound came out.   
  
She knew in her heart that this was it. That single innocent smile shared between two lonely boys, started the chain of events that would lead to their death. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment if you're enjoying this~! 
> 
> I know my updates are slow but this is kind of inspired by the monthly chapters of Boruto :'D  
> As always, let me know if you have ideas or requests


	6. Course of Action

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarada has figured out how to get things back to normal.  
> At least, the first step to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Reuploaded with some edits) 
> 
> AlL i wAnT is to HaVe a conSistEnt updAte ScheDule but Noooo.  
> LifE juSt hAs to gEt iN tHe wAy.
> 
> I can in fact confirm an update pretty soon after this though ;)

Before Sarada passed out, something happened.   
  
Kawaki didn't know how to describe it, just that one moment he was by her side, reaching out to her. The next her chakra was flaring, sending him back in an explosion of invisible. It was loud. Huge. In the time it took him to grit his teeth and force himself back up on his knees, Boruto and Mitsuki were there.   
  
He didn't know how exactly they managed to arrive so quickly. Probably the fact that her chakra felt like the dying cry of an animal. More important was the huge white snake tearing from the ground, lifting Sarada up and far from her. Boruto's eyes flashed with that rare, possessive strength of his, a kunai pointed directly at Kawaki's eyes.   
  
"GET AWAY FROM HER!"   
  
In a sharp, sensitive tingle, Karma was over both of their skin. 

"Wait-!"

He never wanted to be looked at like that. Like he was a monster. Boruto didn't wait of course, he formed a sill and pulled up four massive pillars of lightning energy, keeping Kawaki back like he was-  
  
"Hey- wait! It's not what you think!" Kawaki bellowed aggressively, gritting his teeth in frustration. "It's me. I didn't _attack_ her."   
  
"Boruto," was all Mitsuki calmly said, tinier versions of his white snakes wrapping around each lightning pillar, swallowing their chakra like the snuffing of a candle. In less then a second, the lightning prison was nothing but a crackle of purple on the grass. Boruto looked between Mitsuki and what was clearly an innocent Kawaki with a frown.   
  
"You can't use chakra of that level here. Everyone in the village is going to sense it."   
  
Just like that, Boruto's senses sharpened up. They were surrounded. Anbu and Jounin ninjas were approaching them, silent as the rustling of leaves but cautiously far. There were some in the trees, some as close as ten feet away, some behind them on every building, under every shadow.   
And one was in the middle of making hand seals. 

His eyes faltered, realising what he'd caused.   
  
"Great, now look what you've done."   
  
As disappointed, tired and accusatory as Kawaki sounded, it was lessened by the surreal glitching of his voice. The body he'd been in up until now - the child - was shaking as the teen and adult Kawaki both fought to replace it.  
  
"Look," Boruto saw rather than heard Kawaki mouth. Following the point of the finger, it lead right to Boruto's chest. It was then the blond noticed his own body changing in shape, flickering, growing, morphing rapidly. He couldn't perform that jutsu in the body of a child. It was like using the chakra of an adult had forced his body to grow. Yet the child still fought to maintain shape, all three of them uncomfortably wavering like a supernatural experience.   
  
He briefly saw the confused faces of leaf shinobi drawing near. He briefly saw Kawaki - a child with mature eyes, then a grown man with karma all over his skin. Then Kawaki was small, and Boruto could have sworn there were red flower petals spinning in his periphery. All at once an energy, like a shrill sound emitted from Sarada's closed eyes.   
  
Somehow, even with her crumpled in Mitsuki's snake, he felt as if he were looking into her eyes.   
  
"Oh!"   
And then, they were on the floor. They crashed hard on their knees, barely off the ground, so they had no time to readjust.  
The new room they were in was dark and quiet.   
  
Their bodies had shifted to a different time. 

* * *

Sarada woke with a gasp that almost shattered her lungs.   
  
Her body hurt, sore and shocked but it didn't stop her from jerking up, shoving right through whoever was in her way and making a burst for the nearest door. Kawaki's injured stomach was struck, sending him hunching into the floor, Mitsuki's long limbs were sliced through, the Uchiha determined to make it out of that dull, brown, wooden door.   
  
And then it opened, bright yellow and blue seeping in like the light of the sun. Boruto was shocked to see her, confused, reacting quickly.   
  
"Woah woah! Stop!"   
  
The Uchiha melted, Boruto's firm hands on her arms holding her up. Her heart stopped stammering, the sight of his face - no older than 12 years old this time - bringing her back to reality. Whatever sick, twisted joke reality was. The girl blinked confused, staring at the ground, staring at her own hands.   
  
No blood. No blurry, concerning lack of control over her own body. She wasn't powerless like she had been in her dream... her vision..   
_What had she dreamed of again..?  
_  
Boruto watched Sarada staring vacantly at her own hands as they clenched and unclenched. Glancing over her shoulder, he winced. Kawaki was on the floor, one hand over his stomach, glaring at them from the corner of his eye, the way he did when he didn't want to show he was hurt.   
Mitsuki had stopped the bleeding and reattached his arm.   
  
"I know how to stop them." Sarada's voice was loud and clear, despite the tiredness in her eyes. "I know how to stop papa and Lord Seventh from dying."   
  
It was the first time she'd said their names at that word in the same sentence. Sarada expected Boruto to jump with her, always ready to charge head first into a crazy, adventurous rush with her. But the care and serenity in his eyes and voice left her genuinely shocked.   
  
"Great! But...that's not our priority now. We need to look after you. You need to looked after yourself. Rest."   
  
She was too tired to notice him effortlessly guiding her back to the makeshift beds on the floors. He laid her in it, tucking her in, propping her up on the cushions as Kawaki sat beside them, awkwardly near.  
Exhausted, black eyes were narrowed on Boruto in a mix of intrigue and humour. Twelve year old Boruto had been the most annoying, punchable person she'd known. He'd been so loud, reckless, careless. Seeing that same face, with the calm maturity of older Boruto was oxymoronic.   
  
Sarada closed her eyes. Her head ached.   
  
"I feel lost in time... Where or... when I guess are we?"   
  
"We're twelve," Boruto said, which was obvious as he pointed a thumb at Mitsuki, Kawaki and himself. "But we're... in a time with four Hokage on the walls. I asked around and we're still in the second rein of the third. It's been a few years though. If I'm correct, the third dies later this year."   
  
Kawaki almost joked that Boruto should shut up in case the neighbours overheard and reported them for plotting treason. But he didn't joke. They'd fought, as minor as it was. It stopped Kawaki from saying what was on his mind.  
After all, Boruto had taken one look at him, and had gone straight to attack.   
  
Sarada tried to talk but ended up resting her head on the wooden wall instead, too beaten down to do more than think.   
It was Mitsuki he spoke, wading over in a long, loose light grey robe.   
  
"But we're safe. For now anyway. We have at least a few months until the season where..." The snake boy drew off bashfully, tucking a strand of his hair behind his ear and looking up at the ceiling, "...the one who killed the third will attack."   
If they noticed his behaviour, they were to drained to mention it.  
  
"I think we've landed in a time of relative peace."  
  
Sarada sighed in relief and Boruto forcefully shuffled his butt in between her and Kawaki, leaning on the wall by their side. He grabbed a pillow, clutching it to his stomach. The warmth coming off his shoulder almost cosy.   
  
"Good, good. I never thought I'd hear the words safe again. Do you want to talk, Sarada?"   
  
Sarada blinked, still exercising control over her hand. It was so nice to be in control again. To not have to worry about falling off into some deep, never ending dream.   
"Mangekyou Sharingan..." She started, feeling as if a range of knives were carving patterns in the inside of her skull, "It takes a toll on you. I'd really appreciate it if one of you could buy me a painkiller pill-"  
  
"On it." Kawaki said, but he said it boredly, dryly. He stood up and turned to walk away without even showing them his face. Sarada stared at his back as he retreated, frowning. Mitsuki stared to.   
"Is it really okay for him to go off on his..."   
  
"Leave it." Boruto whispered unexpectedly, causing Sarada to turn to him.   
She swallowed, studying his face, detecting the tension in the room at last.   
  
"It's good that we're trusting him again but we do need to be cautious. There's a balance and more than a threat himself, he's vulnerable. Mitsuki, maybe you should-"  
She was going to ask Mitsuki to follow him.   
But that would leave her alone with Boruto.   
  
A feeling swelled up in her chest, her head and her hurt. She wasn't usually one to put emotions before the mission but...   
Sarada sighed again, grabbing Boruto's shoulder and forcing him to be a cushion for her cheek. It was her way of apologising to him without words. She didn't want to avoid him. She just wanted to avoid another heart breaking conversation about how incomplete they both were...   
  
Boruto put his hand on her hair. As if to mock her avoidance of him, his hand felt immensely warm. Comforting. Almost twice as powerful as any blanket or hug she'd ever felt. Her dark fluttering eyelashes remained shut, not acknowledging the comfort.   
  
"Rest. He probably needs some time alone." Sarada decided at last, closing her eyes. "I'm sorry I freaked out and attacked you like that."   
  
"It's not a problem." Mitsuki stated, crossing his legs on the floor like a neatly seated pet.   
  
"What is up with Kawaki? Don't tell me you guys had a fight?"   
  
Silence.   
  
"Oh come on. I was out for one second-"  
  
"One day." Mitsuki corrected and Sarada rolled her eyes, gaze landing on Boruto. The hand that wasn't on her hair was open. His blue eyes watched the diamond in the centre.   
He wanted to trust Kawaki. He wanted not to hate them. He'd thought they'd gotten over this but he wasn't as easily forgiving as his old man. He couldn't just decide to look at Kawaki and not see...   
The man who'd taken everything from him. When he saw him holding Sarada like that, his body had acted on its own.   
  
"If Kawaki is in trouble, I'll be able to tell."   
He whispered. 

* * *

Fortunately, it was a quick and easy trip. Like Mitsuki had suggested, they were in times of peace.   
Kawaki came in with his head down and a paper bag of goods clutched at his side.   
  
"No pain killers, but a herbal numbing thing you might want to nibble on..." he trailed off when he saw what was before him. Sarada was asleep, hair falling silkily over Boruto's shoulders, the two of them close together in the bed but still sitting up. Sky blue eyes turned to him and Kawaki suddenly felt like he'd interrupted. Mitsuki was no where in sight. It had just been them. And now him.  
  
Awkwardness flooded Kawaki, but Boruto's blue eyes softened.  
  
"Sorry...I'll just."   
"Sit down." Boruto sighed.   
  
So he did.   
  
He didn't talk to Boruto. He didn't look at Boruto.   
He'd thought things between them were getting better. He'd clearly been wrong. 

* * *

"That's vile." Sarada's lips turned up in disgust, not even wanting to swallow what ever she had just eaten.   
Boruto snorted and sauntered towards the bag to snatch one for himself.   
  
"Nah, they wouldn't sell it if its bad, it can't be that- ugh." He nearly gagged, stomach rising up as if it had suddenly grown wings or inflated like a balloon.   
  
"That is vile! What the heck did you get?" He glared slightly at Kawaki.  
  
_So Boruto could talk to him. Only to convince others though. Behind closed doors, Boruto was still cold and awkward. Great._ _  
_  
"I didn't poison it, if that's what you're worried about. If you don't like it go buy some yourself."   
"Hey - I wasn't saying that..." Boruto started but he trailed off, not wanting to worry Sarada who was already taking on too much. "Eh never mind, clearly it's just your bad taste."   
  
"Oh stop it. I-it's not... _that_ bad." Sarada could not have sounded more fake. Boruto snorted, genuinely impressed when she managed to swallow down the whole thing.   
"If this is what's available right now, then I'm grateful."   
  
"Your head must really hurt," Boruto enquired. Sarada closed her eyes and didn't offer any more fake condolences. Instead, she lifted the bag of horrendous medicine into the air.   
  
"For modern, tasteless painkillers. We're doing this, so that one day, we can have the joys of painkillers again."   
  
"And better fabrics," Boruto added, still feeling a little on the itchy side in the cotton clothes they'd bought. "Ahh, I miss my sleek fabrics. My games. My long, fast train rides with the wind blowing in my hair."   
  
_My parents._   
Sarada was struck with an idea, but before she could get it out, Mitsuki spoke up.   
  
"I miss getting burgers with everyone."   
To everyone but Kawaki, that bought a warm smile.   
  
"Chocho sneaking seconds and thirds and fourths," Sarada added, warmth and longing flooding her chest despite her smile.   
  
"Shikadai and Inojin talking about something dumb, me butting in, making it an argument." Boruto chuckled brightly. Then, all eyes turned to Kawaki. The boy breathed out, hardening his gaze, gradually realising they wanted to say something he missed too.   
  
It was hard. What was the present to him but exactly this? No. Worse. At least here, he had them.  
Still, there was one time he did miss. The smell of Lady Hinata's perfume, Himawari's smiles, Naruto's laughs, Boruto's awkward, young, jittery friendship. He remembered sitting on the couch, squished up with the Uzumaki siblings. Hinata had made them dumblings, the seventh's presence had been a blanket over their skin.   
Kawaki's throat felt sore, but he swallowed the lump.   
  
He and Boruto were fighting afterall.   
  
"I guess I miss... that time we went to get crepes." His eyes darted to Sarada's.   
A slightly bitter feeling showed itself in Boruto's chest, not knowing when this date of theres was. Why it had even happened?   
Not wanting to be misleading, Kawaki closed his eyes.   
  
"I miss fast food. Crepes, burgers, the whole lot." He added, to which everyone nodded, still too travel sick to feel hunger.   
  
Boruto decided to change the topic.   
  
"So, about this solution you mentioned earlier Sarada?"   
Right. Of course. 

"We should have a meeting, could you shut the window?" Mitsuki's arm elongated, flicking it shut without even looking.   
Sarada sat up straighter, eyes staring ahead in thought as she spoke.   
  
"Up until now, we've been travelling aimlessly, following this feeling. This energy... we'll call it _Siren energy_. It's like everything goes red and there's this loud, uncontrollable screeching in my ears. Up until now it's only been faint, leading us to random scenes and bits of information. Well, when I saw our papas as kids, I felt something else. Like siren energy but darker, ten times as strong."   
  
Sarada was aware that she might sound crazy but she didn't let it stop her from getting her point across.   
  
"Our task may not be as abstract as I thought. The strongest Siren Energy comes from Papa and Lord Seventh. So we just have to follow them. At some point, there might be an issue, where we have to change the course of events. It's both simpler than we'd thought, and deeper."   
  
Sarada pinched her palm into a fist again, an action all of them had noticed her repeating more and more.   
  
"Whatever has cursed them... the reason they're dead now, started way before our time. From before they were even born." She grit her teeth in thought of all the odd titbits they'd experienced before. "For Naruto, it may be being the fourth's son, but my papa..? I don't get it. Not just yet but we will. Whatever is condemning them will become clearer and clearer. Hopefully it's an event we just have to change."   
  
"Perhaps, the events of the fourth great shinobi war? The activation of the Rinnegan in Sasuke, or the taming of the nine tails in Lord seventh?" Mitsuki offered.   
Sarada bit her lip. There was too little they knew about their parents lives. The events they did know; the war, the rinnegan, were scraps of light in a dark, mysterious world of moments.   
  
"Wait... Sarada, how do we know if the siren energy is even preventing their death? If it is, why follow dad's life? Why couldn't it just sent us back in time to kill Isshiki before..." Boruto stopped, when he remembered the nightmarish process of trying to kill an Otsutsuki.   
It had barely worked back then, so trying now would be suicide.   
  
"What about the masked man?"   
It was Kawaki who spoke up at last, his voice low and heavy, as if he were being dragged through the ocean. Just hearing that, goose bumps covered all of their skin. The memory was clearly too soon as all three pairs of eyes were on Kawaki, uncomfortable and intrigued.   
  
"He was a mangekyou user. Realistically, he could pop up out of the floor right now," Kawaki swallowed, Boruto cutting off his breath.   
  
"What if the masked man is Isshiki?! I don't think he is but he might have something to do with the chain of events. Why was he there when my grandpa died? Didn't he have a mangekyou that acted similarly to Sarada's? So far we've only seen him in one time period but... I think I speak for all of us when I say I know we'll see him again."   
Sarada leaned forward, biting down on the edge of her thumb nail.   
  
"If he is, it would tie together a lot. My time jumps started with an Uchiha, then another Uchiha. If our enemy is using sharingan, maybe the mangekyou is showing us because it wants me to learn how to use it."   
Her fingers framed her eyes, her black orbs brightening, spinning into three tomoe but not the mangekyou. It was beautiful, entrancing. Excitement rose in Boruto. Wariness and respect in Kawaki's silent observation.   
  
"That masked figure definitely was a man right... not like, you from the future or-"  
"Yes, it was definitely a man. That was an unmistakeable voice." Mitsuki answered.   
"I know but like, what if she used a voice changer or-"  
  
"Boruto, the masked man is not me from the future." Sarada gave Boruto a glare.   
  
"Okay, maybe not you. Maybe it's your dad? Hear me out, Uncle Sasuke has more powers that transcend humanity, death and dimensions that anyone else. What if he's not dead? What if he was reborn but he's avoiding us by wearing that mask but he's looking out for us or-"  
  
"Boruto stop. Dad's not... besides, I know my own father's voice."   
  
Boruto's blue eyes softened. Despite the severity in her voice, she couldn't be mad at Boruto. He loved her papa almost as much as her.   
  
"If we think of the masked man as a time traveller we're making things more complicated for ourselves. He could be someone born to the past, present or even the future beyond us. I don't think we should care about theorising over him when we have so little information as it is. Let's focus on what we know first." Kawaki said, perhaps the first sense he'd spoken in a long time.   
"That Uchiha you first saw a long time ago, when you first had a dream."   
  
Sarada had taken those pain numbing foods but all of a sudden, her head hurt. It wasn't a loud hurt. It wasn't a siren energy she was used to. It was a simple reverberation, as if an enemy had landed a hit directly on her brain. She didn't let them see her react to it.   
  
"Or what about that other guy? The friendly one, when we were testing if it was a genjutsu, and he was sitting above us in that tree? What about that weird kid in the Uchiha shrine who knew everything there was to know?"   
  
Sarada's uncle. Uchiha Itachi, wasn't that his name?   
Now a new feeling, a bright hopeful sensation was coming from her heart.   
  
"Yes, yes you're right. Kawaki you're a genius." She clenched her fist yet again, "Forget out wider aims, for now we need course of action. To do that we need intel, based on what we can get from what's already here. Rather, who. Someone to follow, someone ideally alive in all the times we've visited. We do need to follow papa and the seventh, but they're too close to things. It's too risky. I thought of Mama and Lady Hinata but they might be too young. Then I remembered my papa had an older brother."   
Sarada smiled with pride.   
  
"We'll find him again. That way we're going to get answers, we just have to find him and I need to ask him how he did what he did before, what he knows? What his ideas are, what did you guys find before?"  
  
Mitsuki and Boruto looked at eachother before Mitsuki sighed.   
"Itachi is almost impossible to find. All the Uchiha are. It's possible they were away on a mission that time. We may have to set up camp here and wait for Itachi in the long run."   
  
The image of the barred off Uchiha territory briefly surfaced in Sarada's mind.   
  
"Okay. That's fine. Even if we have to wait, he's are best option."   
  
"We're gonna tell him about it all?" Boruto grimaced uncomfortably, "I don't know if we should do that. I don't what kind of effects that might have on the past. We don't even know if we can trust the guy... the masked user is someone with a sharingan."   
Sarada scowled at him, this time, genuinely annoyed.   
  
"Of course we're not going to tell him it all. We'll have to figure him out first, talk to him and bring him somewhere quiet and be a little vague. I'm pretty sure the masked man was not him. I saw him holding papa before the attack, remember? Not to mention, he might even remember us from before."   
  
"So we'll split up and search?" Mitsuki tilted his head.   
  
"No. This time we need to have more tact. Three of us will stay here, one of us will go to get intel from him." Sarada eyed her teammates up and down.   
  
"I am an Uchiha. I have reason to speak to him and have something in common with him. I _want_ to be the one to speak to him but... Hm. Maybe that could be our lure. We'll ask him to come because a member of the Uchiha clan wishes to see him. I'm sure he'll understand. Mitsuki, you're the best at intel."   
  
His tongue slipped out of the corner of his mouth and wiggled instead of saying yes. Sarada winced.   
"Then again... you are... weird. Memorable. You definitely stand out."  
  
"If I was Sasuke's brother and Mitsuki came up to me, licking his lips and saying to follow him, I'd probably kick him and run." Boruto added. Mitsuki turned his head to stare at his friend, prompting the blond to throw an arm about the snake boy and laugh.   
"In a perfectly nice, not rude way."   
  
It was fine. Mitsuki enjoyed Boruto's attention to his quirks.   
  
"Boruto has the best social skills. He's very bright, very cheery, very non-threatening right now without his scar. I suppose... it could be him." Sarada evaluated out loud, "he just looks so much like the seventh's son." Sarada frowned and turned her attention to Kawaki.   
  
Kawaki didn't react under her eyes, looking up at her, holding her gaze with firmness and weakness at the same time. He reminded her of a tough puppy sometimes. On the outside he could be so harsh and aggressive. But deep down, he wanted saving just like the rest of them.   
  
"Boruto it is." Sarada said, not even analysing Kawaki at all.   
  
Boruto grimaced, feeling off about being chosen. Being sent away, when Sarada was clearly most comfortable around him. She was hurt, and he didn't want to leave her alone with Kawaki. Again. She'd chosen to be alone with Kawaki again. And what was with that stare she just gave him? As if they were communicating silently in their own world?   
  
He was her childhood friend. He'd known her for longer, their parents were friends and yet -   
  
Oh why did he even care? He didn't want to be petty and jealous. But he couldn't help it. Sarada was...   
  
"Agh. So I look for Uchiha Itachi, that's all?"   
  
"Look but don't ask around. We're learning from our mistakes here. Try to be subtle about it and if all else fails, I've thought of a back up plan."  
Boruto's eyebrow raised, amazed that even though Sarada was literally falling apart before their eyes, her mind was somehow ten steps ahead.   
  
"Lord sixth should also be alive. He was close to both our papas, he was alive the night of the fourth's death. He's a source of information, but only if Itachi cannot be found. Otherwise we risk changing things too much. Besides, it's not like Uncle Kakashi can help with sharingan issues."   
  
Boruto was already standing up, getting ready.  
  
"Even though these are times of peace, be cautious. Be back here before sunset-  
Sarada paused.   
"Where is here? Is this another hotel?"   
  
Mitsuki and Kawaki's lips were sealed.   
  
"Boruto?"   
He pulled a face, and that told Sarada all she needed to know before Mitsuki quickly explained.   
"It's an empty home. Nobody is near and nobody appears to be living here."   
  
"Y-you set up camp in a random stranger's home!?" Sarada was already up, trying to pack up her things but the Boruto and Mitsuki struggled to keep her down.   
  
"It's fine, rest. There's barely anything here so the owner is likely off on a mission. This is the first place your sharingan sent us to, so we took it as a positive sign."   
Sarada's eyes searched the empty room and found one cupboard. Minimal furniture, minimal decorations. There was a single bed but they used the floor so all of them could fit.   
  
"If anyone comes near, a snake will let us know." Mitsuki spoke calmly, a honey like smoothness in his empty yellow eyes.   
  
Honestly, Sarada was too tired to put up a fight.   
She sank down, twisting onto her side and resting her cheek into the pillow. She reached out, half expecting Boruto's warm hands to reach her first but-  
He wasn't there.   
She was reminded that she'd sent him away.   
  
"Go," She ordered softly, "Go complete your mission Boruto. You're looking for my uncle. You're going to be back before the sun sets."   
  
Somehow, before Boruto could even leave, Sarada was back asleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takeaway -  
> We have reached part 1 Naruto!!  
> -Tension between Boruto and Kawaki, both wanting to forgive each other but it's not easy  
> -They know nothing about Itachi :)  
> -They are very scared of the masked man  
> -The reason for Naruto and Sasuke's death by Isshiki started waaay before the actual death 
> 
> Theories on what this might be..? ;)
> 
> Again please leave comments on ideas, theories, what you thought of the chapter.  
> Anything at all, I'd love to hear your support <3

**Author's Note:**

> In case it wasn't clear, the boys she saw were young Madara, Izuna and another sibling who died before. 
> 
> Please let me know your thoughts in the comments <3


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